Head coach Kevin Foote says he can already see the value of the Junior Springboks’ short tour of Georgia.
The Junior Boks got off to a good start with a live training session against the Lelo Saracens club in Tbilisi on Wednesday. The South Africans have experienced sub-zero conditions since their arrival in the Georgian capital on Monday, but they are taking the freezing temperatures in their stride.
On Wednesday, the Junior Boks encountered snow – vastly different to the high temperatures at their base in Stellenbosch in recent weeks – when they left for the Lelo Saracens club.
“It was a nice hit out today and we are grateful to Lelo Saracens for hosting us in such a splendid way,” said Foote.
“It’s bitterly cold out here – probably minus two degrees when we left for the field – but that [the challenging weather conditions] is very good for our boys’ mentality, because it’s something we cannot control, unlike our preparations and our performances.”
Foote said the tour squad started with about 50 minutes of training in units – backs and forwards separately – performing live lineouts, scrums and mauls against their hosts, with the effort and performance of the youngsters leaving their coach a satisfied man afterwards.
“I was very impressed with our scrum efforts today,” said Foote.
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“I thought our pack did well, and our lineout is obviously something that we focus on a lot, alongside our mauls and maul defence. The players also did some set-piece defence, attack, and some skills work, and then we got together for our team rugby session.
“We are also working hard on our execution, which is another big focus area for us, making sure we all know our roles and what good execution looks like. All our coaches, Melusi Mthethwa and Lumumba Currie, as well as [coaching consultant] Johan Ackermann did a great job.”
Following Wednesday’s live training session, the Junior Boks will now turn their attention to the two outings against their Georgian U20 counterparts.
“I couldn’t be prouder of how the management staff and players are getting together, and we are really looking forward to our hit-out against the Georgian U20 side on Sunday, which we expect will be tough opposition,” said Foote.
“I feel we are getting our combinations right, as well as our game model. We got some work to do on our 15 versus 15 scenarios, but I really feel that we are making good progress.”
Rolling subs will be used in Sunday’s match against the Georgia U20s, which will allow Foote the opportunity to give all the members of the touring squad game time.
Photo: @SAJuniorRugby/Twitter
