'We just weren’t good enough,' but Junior Boks still in playoff hunt despite humbling loss to Italy

After winning their opening game against Georgia on Saturday, the Junior Springboks were brought back down to earth in rainy Paarl on Thursday as they lost 34-26 to Italy in a World Rugby U20 Championship clash where basic errors and poor discipline held them back. 

Despite the loss, head coach Bafana Nhleko and captain Paul de Villiers believe South Africa can still qualify for the competition's semi-finals.

In the other match in Pool C, Georgia claimed a 20-0 win over Argentina, and after two rounds, the race for the top spot remains wide open, with each team having won and lost a match each.

South Africa must defeat Argentina in their clash at Athlone Stadium on 4 July if they are to qualify for the knock-outs.

Speaking after the match, Nhleko said his side wasn't good enough on the day and that Italy thoroughly deserved their victory. 

“If your set piece, kicking game and defence is functioning, you can put yourself into a position to build pressure, and then you can put points on the board,” Nhleko said.

“You need to be at it for 80 minutes, though. Today, we were good at times, scoring some beautiful tries and producing some really strong defensive moments. At others, it wasn’t so great. Unfortunately, Italy were in it for longer and got the rewards.

“We’ve been watching Italy play in the U20 Six Nations, and we know how good they are. We just weren’t good enough today, in terms of the way we started and the penalties we conceded.

“They got good ascendancy in the maul and put us under pressure. We couldn't get going as a result. When we did have opportunities, we didn't take a few of them.”

Captain Paul de Villiers admitted that the players were hurting after the loss. There were aspects of the performance on Thursday,