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The Junior Wallabies have stunned South Africa with a remarkable second-half comeback at the Rugby Championship U20 in South Africa.
After going scoreless in a first half in which they suffered a yellow card and lost two starters to injury, the Aussies scored 29 straight points after the break to win 29-24 and keep their title hopes alive ahead of their final match against Argentina.
“(At half-time) the coaches reinforced our team identity, building pride for family back home, our friends and for ourselves,” Australia U20 captain Eamon Doyle said.
G(Photo by Richard Huggard/Gallo Images)
“That was the main message going at half-time – build some pride.
“We know South Africa’s back three is lightning quick so our plan was to kick deep to the corners and I thought in the second half we controlled that really well.”
South Africa led 14-0 at the break, and had another try disallowed after TMO review and looked well in control as they advanced to a 17-0 lead early in the second period.
The comeback started in the 47th minute when captain Eamon Doyle broke clear of a rolling maul to dive over and fullback Sid Harvey slotted the conversion to make the score 17-7.
Edwin Langi scored next from range with 20 minutes to play, before replacement hooker Lipina Ata finished off an incisive counterattack to give Australia U20 a 21-17 lead.
That lead grew in the 70th minute courtesy of a long-range effort sparked and finished by outside centre Xavier Rubens, to make the score 26-17. Another Harvey penalty, after Ata suffered a shoulder to the head that went by without a card, pushed the lead out, and the Aussies held out after some late Boks pressure.
Junior Boks coach Kevin Foote was graceful in defeat.
“We got pegged down in our own half after half-time, and a few turnovers gave them opportunities and momentum,” said Foote, whose team beat Argentina in the opening round last Thursday.
“I think Australia deserve a lot of credit for staying in the fight, they’re gutsy and did well at that. We turned over too much ball and the defensive pressure became big for us.
“The number one thing to improve on is probably to look after our ball and making sure we don’t give it up too easily, as well as our discipline to not concede soft penalties.”
Australia U20 29 (Doyle, Ed. Langi, Ata, Rubens tries; Harvey 3 cons; Harvey pen) defeated South Africa U20 24 (Nyali, Ndlozi, Hlekani tries; Moyo 2, Smith cons; Moyo pen)
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