{"id":51073,"date":"2026-02-27T18:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T18:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=51073"},"modified":"2026-02-27T18:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T18:33:11","slug":"junior-boks-complete-georgian-tour-with-victory-in-tough-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/02\/27\/junior-boks-complete-georgian-tour-with-victory-in-tough-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior Boks secure double win over Georgia U20s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>Coach Kevin Foote said his team made the most of their opportunities despite conceding many penalties and seeing two players sin-binned.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Junior Springboks concluded their short tour of Georgia with a 35-5 victory over the hosts on a cold and wet Friday afternoon in Tbilisi, with SA U20 head coach Kevin Foote praising the players\u2019 resilience in the tough conditions.<\/p>\n<p>The SA U20s, who won the first game 35-0 last Sunday, led by 21-0 at the break and scored five tries to one.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-junior-boks-far-from-perfect\">Junior Boks far from perfect<\/h2>\n<p>The tough conditions made handling very difficult, while the South Africans were also guilty of conceding too many penalties, with two players also spending time in the sin-bin.<\/p>\n<p>Yaqeen Ahmed contributed 15 points from a try and five conversions, which means that the Junior Bok flyhalf succeeded with all 10 of his conversions over the two matches.<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on the performance, Foote said the players showed a lot of character: \u201cThe conditions were tough with all the rain. Playing in Georgia is always difficult for different reasons, but I thought the guys showed a lot of maturity today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Junior Boks were forced to be patient, as Georgia\u2019s physical pack made possession difficult to come by. However, the South Africans were clinical when given the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t get a lot of possession, but when we did, we made use of it, especially in the first half,\u201d Foote added.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-sa-u20-score-five-tries-against-georgia\">SA U20 score five tries against Georgia<\/h3>\n<p>Lindsey Jansen opened the scoring for the SA U20s after strong runs by the midfield pair of Ethan Adams and Markus Muller had set up play nicely for the speedster to finish.<\/p>\n<p>He was followed over the whitewash by scrumhalf Hendr\u00e9 Schoeman before Zekhethelo Siyaya, who was impressive in the No 15 jersey on attjuniack, scored their third converted try to give the Junior Boks a 21-0 lead at the break.<\/p>\n<p>Georgia started the second half more determined, and the slippery conditions meant a lot of stop-start play as the players struggled with their handling.<\/p>\n<p>The second half proved more abrasive and disjointed, which tested the team\u2019s discipline and defensive resolve. Despite the pressure, the Junior Boks\u2019 defence remained strong as they conceded only one try, their only one in two matches.<\/p>\n<p>Nika Khalvashi (wing) scored the hosts\u2019 only try shortly after the break, from a great cross-kick, but Ahmed and Risima Khosa added two more tries as the South Africans eased into a well-deserved away win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe second half was very stop-start, so there were some great learnings for us here in Georgia, as we\u2019ll be playing here again during the Junior World Championship, which they will host,\u201d added Foote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a good effort to us for only conceding one try, which is important and shows our character, but we still have a long way to go as we head towards the U20 Rugby Championship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scorers:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Junior Springboks 35 (21) <\/strong>\u2013 Tries: Lindsey Jansen, Hendr\u00e9 Schoeman, Zekhethelo Siyaya, Yaqeen Ahmed, Risima Khosa. Conversions: Ahmed (5).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Georgia U20 5 (0) <\/strong>\u2013 Try: Nika Khalvashi.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Junior #Boks #secure #double #win #Georgia #U20s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coach Kevin Foote said his team made the most of their opportunities despite conceding many penalties and seeing two players&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51075,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51073\/revisions\/51075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}