Norton: Junior Springboks must find balance between kicking and counter-attack against Australia

Junior Springbok captain Riley Norton is confident that his team can emulate the Class of 2012 and clinch the World Rugby Under-20 Championship title.

The youngsters will begin their campaign today against Australia at the San Michele Stadium in Calvisano, Italy (3.30pm SA time kick-off).

They will also face England and Scotland in Pool A over the next few weeks.

Norton, who also featured for the SA cricket team at the Under-19 World Cup last year, is a No 4 lock who attended Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch and matriculated last year.

Having turned 19 in January, Norton has opted to pursue rugby as his main sporting career, and is a first-year BCom Investment Management student at Stellenbosch University.

The skipper hopes to follow in the footsteps of then-captain Wiaan Liebenberg in 2012 – when the Junior Boks won the title in Cape Town – and lift the trophy in Italy.

“Of course I back the boys. We’ve been extremely well prepared, had numerous camps. We’ve only done it in 2012, and many of those guys became Springboks,” Norton said ahead of the Australia clash.

“It’s definitely something we think we can do. The mood in the camp is unbelievable, and the boys are just excited to get stuck in and express ourselves as a team.”

The Junior Boks face a tough start against Australia, who won their Under-20 Rugby Championship clash 29-24 in Gqeberha in May.

With the conditions very different in summer in Italy, Norton hopes the South Africans are able to utilise the pace of speedsters such as Gilermo Mentoe, Cheswill Jooste and Siyabonga Ndlozi out wide.

“Australia got one-up on us in the Rugby Championship and we have a lot of respect for them. They are really skilled people, and love to take the ball out wide and go coast to coast,” Norton said.

“Conditions in Italy are really hot and humid, from the rainy and cold weather in Stellenbosch.

“So, it’s been a different experience, but one that we are really enjoying.

“We have to find the right balance between kicking the ball and letting our counter-attack and our incredibly quick outside backs to have an opportunity to counter and run with the ball.

“We have implemented some systems in our defence where the stack attack caught us off-guard, so we are really excited to face them again and test ourselves against the best.”

Junior Bok coach Kevin Foote was pleased with the preparations for the tournament, and is positive that his players can make a fine start against Australia.

“We obviously have made changes from game to game, and when we’ve done that, strategically building into this World Cup, we feel like we wanted to give everyone the best opportunity to prepare and look at different combinations,” Foote said.

“All building into this first game against Australia, and making sure that the guys are super confident and have absolute clarity going into our first game.

“I think there’s enough motivation already from the guys. They’ve been together for a while now. And like I keep banging on, they’re such a committed group and they just can’t wait to get started.

“So I think from our perspective, we understand what Australia bring is a threat, and we understand what our strengths are.

“We must just make sure that we do that for 80 minutes.

“I suppose because we didn’t get the result we wanted against Australia in the first one... that’s all we’re thinking about right now.

“And that’s one good positive that we can take out of that is that we can’t be looking ahead when we know that Australia is such a threatening team.

“So, we are very, very focused on Australia, and only Australia for now.”

Junior Springbok Team

15 Gilermo Mentoe 14 Cheswill Jooste 13 Demitre Erasmus 12 Albie Bester 11 Siyabonga Ndlozi 10 Vusi Moyo 9 Haashim Pead 8 Wandile Mlaba 7 Bathobele Hlekani 6 Xola Nyali 5 JJ Theron 4 Riley Norton (captain) 3 Herman Lubbe 2 Siphosethu Mnebelele 1 Simphiwe Ngobese.

Bench: 16 Jaundre Schoeman 17 Oliver Reid 18 Jean Erasmus 19 Jaco Grobbelaar 20 Matt Romao 21 Erich Visser 22 Ian van der Merwe 23 Jaco Williams.