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Junior Boks finish on a high

The Junior Springboks finished their warm-up games for the World Under-20 Championship unbeaten, after registering a morale-boosting 58-14 in Oudtshoorn.

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The Championship will be hosted in Manchester, England, from June 7-25; with the Junior Boks taking on Japan, Argentina and France in the pool stages.

"I am pleased with the display. Our set pieces were solid, we defended well and we backed ourselves on attack, which is what we have been working towards. We made a lot of handling errors in the match against Maties, and there was a clear improvement in that area of our game against SWD.

"We also used most of our chances to score when they presented themselves, which is very pleasing. But there are still a few small things we have to work on before our opening match against Japan.

"That said, I am proud of the players. We won all three of our warm-up matches, so hopefully we will be able to build on this in England. Obviously we will face some of the best teams in the world over there, so we will have to step up or game by a few notches, but we certainly have a solid base to build from," Theron said.

The Junior Boks started with a bang, with centre Franco van den Berg rounding off a fantastic try in the eighth minute from a turnover, in which he bounced off a defender to dash to the tryline. Fullback Curwin Bosch converted the try to hand the team a 7-0 lead.

Bosch added a try three minutes later after finding space out wide and dashing around the defence to touch down in the corner to extend their lead to 14-0.

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Speedy wing Mosolwa Mafuma added the third try in the 25th minute after flank Zain Davids forced his way through a gap in the middle of the field, and the ball was sent out to Mafuma, who out sprinted the defence. The successful conversion stretched the score to 21-0.

SWD hit back in the 32nd minute with a try after finding a gap in the midfield. But this was cancelled out minutes later as prop Kwenzo Blose scored the Boks' fourth try after a series of phases, with Bosch adding his fourth conversion for a 28-7 lead.

SWD fought back with intent in the closing minutes of the half, but the Junior Boks absorbed the pressure well and managed to deny them from adding to their score.

The Junior Boks wasted no time inflating their score in the second half, as flyhalf Manie Libbok picked up a loose ball from an SWD knock-on and cruised to the tryline seven minutes after the whistle for a 35-7 lead.

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SWD, however, tightened up their defence and put together more phases on attack, which proved to be effective at containing the Junior Boks. The home team were rewarded for their attacking efforts in the 56th minute as they put their forwards to good use to score their second try, but the Junior Boks responded with three penalties by Bosch for a 44-14 lead.

The national side completed the match with two late tries by Bosch and replacement back Edwill van der Merwe, which Bosch converted to secure a 58-14 victory. Libbok broke through the midfield and passed out wide to Bosch for his try, while Van der Merwe picked up a grubber kick to score the final try.

Bosch's two tries, three penalties and seven conversions earned him a personal points tally 33 points in the match.

The Junior Springboks will spend a week with the their families before assembling in Cape Town for the World Championship holding camp in Cape Town on Sunday 29 May.

The team will depart for Manchester on Thursday, 2 June.

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