The Junior Springboks have booked their place in Saturday's World Rugby Under-20 Championship final in Tbilisi, where they will meet France in defence of their title, after overturning an eight-point halftime deficit to beat England 53-37.
Trailing 20-12 at the break, the Junior Boks scored four unanswered tries in the opening 13 minutes of the second half to seize control and ultimately run out 16-point winners. Khuthadzo Rasivhaga finished with a hat-trick and Yaqeen Ahmed contributed 23 points — a try, six conversions and two penalty goals — in a commanding second-half display that was nonetheless far from polished throughout.
England had largely been the authors of their own downfall in the first half. Ollie Streeter crossed in the fourth minute and Hugh Shields, who ended the match with two tries, two conversions and two penalty goals, orchestrated a 17-7 lead before England flanker Seb Kelly was shown a permanent red card for a headbutt on Luan Giliomee midway through the half. Rasivhaga converted a pinpoint Ahmed cross-kick to pull the score back to 20-12 at the break, but South Africa had spurned opportunities throughout a frustrating opening 40 minutes littered with handling errors and poor decision-making.
The Junior Boks emerged from the interval transformed. Rasivhaga scored his second before Kebotile Maake crossed twice in two minutes, with Ahmed converting all three to make it 33-20. Rasivhaga completed his hat-trick in the 53rd minute to double the South African score to 40-20, and though England periodically clawed back ground, Luke Cannon's converted try and Ahmed's penalty goals kept the gap well beyond reach.
Giliomee's tournament could be in jeopardy after a clumsy challenge in the air resulted in his yellow card being upgraded to a 20-minute red. England scored their fourth try during that period to close to 50-32, and Shields dotted down again late on, but the Junior Boks were not threatened.
France, who beat New Zealand 26-22 in the first semifinal, await on Saturday.