WINNING the U/20 Rugby Championship title for the Baby Boks at the weekend, should be accompanied by a message reminding this national team of the many bolts that still need to be tightened before starting thoughts of defending the World Cup title.
This came from the mouth of the team’s coach, Kevin Foote, following their 29-29 match against rivals New Zealand, in the game that confirmed the title of the Rugby Championship in the game in Gqeberha, last weekend.
South Africa came into this game needing a point to be crowned the U/20 Rugby Championship for the first time in history.
The lesson that Foote learned from this tournament is that his team is not in the situation he thought it was in, as there are still areas he needs to improve.
“We should have easily won the New Zealand game but we made a lot of mistakes which reminded me of the many things we still have to do before starting to defend the World Cup title,” said Foote.
“It was already in our plans to win the Championship this year, but what we are focusing on is defending our World title, which I have no doubt will be difficult.
“It is clear to us from the way we won the Championship that there are many bolts that we have to tighten before the start of the World Cup.”
South Africa started the tournament with a lot of enthusiasm, but the last game reminded the national team that they have not yet reached the level they claim to be.
New Zealand, which held the local team 29-29 on Saturday, started the tournament without being given anything to prove with some of its results, such as losing to Argentina.
The young Bobokhokos started the tournament and they were told to eat it since they were in good form to beat all the countries and the games were at home.
The U/20 World Cup will be played in Gqeberha, from July 1.