The Junior Springboks' return from Tbilisi took an dramatic turn when team doctor Clement Plaatjies resuscitated a fellow passenger mid-flight on the connecting leg from Johannesburg to Cape Town.
General Manager for High Performance Rugby Dave Wessels noticed a woman had collapsed in the aisle and immediately alerted Plaatjies. The woman had no pulse. Plaatjies administered a lifesaving intervention and the aircraft — already over Bloemfontein — turned back to OR Tambo for further medical care. After luggage was offloaded to retrieve the woman's baggage, the squad eventually landed in Cape Town at around 19:15, more than three hours behind the scheduled 15:45 arrival.
The incident capped a week of disruptions for the U20 squad. The World Rugby U20 Championship final against France at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi on July 18 had already been delayed 45 minutes by a lightning storm before the Junior Boks ran out 16-5 winners (half-time 6-0) to claim back-to-back Junior World Championship titles — a first in South African rugby history.
The victory extended South Africa's winning run at the Junior World Championship to 11 consecutive matches and placed them alongside New Zealand (2008–11), England (2013–14) and France (2018–19) as the only sides to successfully defend the title. Kevin Foote's squad also cemented South Africa's status as the only rugby nation currently holding back-to-back titles at senior World Cup, junior world championship and Sevens world championship level simultaneously.