Bumbling Junior Boks survive scrum woes and gutsy Georgians to avoid major World Champs upset

Missed opportunity for a bonus point? Just be happy victory was secured!

That would've been the relieved lament from any Junior Springbok supporter after the side spluttered to a 33-23 victory over Georgia in their World Rugby Under-20 Championship opener in Stellenbosch on Saturday night.

Head coach Bafana Nhleko had made a curious observation in the build-up to the game, noting how difficult it is to mould a team with young men from various rugby backgrounds in such a short space of time and it showed as South Africa suffered from a lack of cohesion at various stages.

To accuse the Boks of perhaps underestimating their gutsy opponents would be a disservice to them as they certainly didn't seem to be casual about they way they were going about things.

In fact, South Africa generally tried to be methodical with their possession, using box kicks to gain momentum against a disciplined defensive line and only try to really hammer away once they had achieved favourable field position.

That was evident in the opening score from Bulls midfielder Katlego Letebele, who waited for a nice platform from about 25m out before delightfully chipping over the defence and regathering to score.

South Africa also showed some variety in scoring their second try after bashing away at the Georgians' line with pick-and-drives from close range before going wide, where fullback Hakeem Kunene did well to field Imad Khan's somewhat errant pass and allow Jorenzo Julius to dot down in the corner from the wing.

It was a decent retort from the home side after Georgia had given a first glimpse that they weren't going to be pushovers when they found some maul dominance and, hammering at the line for a few phases, found skipper and blindsider Lasha Tsikhistavi