Junior Boks and New Zealand play to thrilling draw in rain-soaked clash

The match was played amid very wet and windy weather at the Sunshine Coast Stadium in Australia on Thursday. The swirling wind, mostly in the South Africans' faces in the first half, further complicated matters.

The wet conditions made handling difficult and the Junior Boks struggled at the breakdowns, but they were very strong on defence. The SA U20s only had one attacking opportunity but could not make it count.

New Zealand enjoyed territorial advantage in the first half, and a penalty goal on the half-hour mark by Isaac Hutchison was the only points of the half, as the Kiwis hit the sheds leading by 3-0.

The game opened up in the second half when New Zealand stretched their lead to 8-0 as Stanley Solomon went over in the left corner from an attacking scrum in the 50th minute.

The Junior Boks knuckled down though and Tylor Sefoor (flyhalf) landed his first penalty goal just before the hour-mark to make it 8-3.

Moments later, the Junior Boks pounced with Joel Leotlela going over under the posts after great work done by Bruce Sherwood as the SA U20s capitalised on a mistake under a kick by New Zealand.

After Sefoor's conversion and a second penalty goal four minutes later, following a massive scrum, the Junior Boks were suddenly leading by 13-8, and it could have been more had the SA U20 flyhalf not missed another attempt at a penalty.

With seven minutes to go, JF van Heerden was yellow carded and a few minutes later, New Zealand scored their second try when Frank Vaenuku went over in the right hand corner, but the wind pushed the conversion wide to make it 13-13, which is how it ended shortly thereafter.

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