The Junior Springboks and New Zealand share the spoils today in the opening match of the U20 Rugby Championship being played on the Sunshine Coast in Australia.

A late try by the Baby Blacks winger, Frank Vaenuku, saw the match end in a thrilling 13-13 draw after the team from New Zealand led 3-0 at the halftime break at a very wet and windy Sunshine Coast Stadium.

South Africa fought back from 8-0 down to take the lead following a try by Joel Leotela as well as two penalties and a conversion by the Cheetahs flyhalf, Tylor Sefoor.

The Junior Boks captain, Zachary Porthen, lauded his team’s fighting spirit.

“Our plan was that we really wanted to play in the right areas of the field and play the territory game nicely,” said Porthen.

“I don’t think we got to that the way we wanted to and that’s kind of why we didn’t get the result we wanted.

“I think the boys fought nicely and we’ll definitely go and analyse Australia and we’ll come back better next week.

“We’ve got a strict game plan and we’ll stick to it. We’ll tweak a few things and see what we need to change. I don’t think there will be many changes and we’ll come back next week a lot harder.”

On Tuesday the Junior Boks will tackle Australia.

Scorers:

Junior Boks: Try – Joel Leotela Conv. – Tylor Sefoor Pen. – Sefoor 2

Baby Blacks: Tries – Stanley Solomon, Frank Vaenuku Pen. – Isaac Hutchinson

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek mvh