The defending champions have arrived. And they’ve arrived with a message that leaves nothing open to interpretation.
The Junior Springboks opened their 2026 World Rugby U20 Championship campaign in Tbilisi, Georgia on Saturday with a 104-7 demolition of Uruguay — 16 tries, a penalty try, and a half-time scoreline of 50-0 that told you everything you needed to know about the gap between these two sides before the second half had even begun.
This is what a title defence looks like when you mean it.
Coach Kevin Foote’s Junior Springboks came into the tournament carrying real absences. Regular captain Riley Norton and flyhalf Vusi Moyo were called up to the senior Springbok squad before the tournament began. First-choice flyhalf Yaqeen Ahmed is suspended.
Three significant players, gone before a ball was kicked in Georgia. Most teams at a World Championship would feel that. Most teams would show it.
The Junior Springboks didn’t flinch.
Markus Müller opened the account after just seven minutes, slicing through the Uruguayan defence to set the tone.
Jordan Steenkamp followed four minutes later as the Junior Boks launched a counter-attack from deep, and the penalty try came shortly after when Uruguay collapsed a driving maul they had no answer for. Inside 16 minutes, it was 21-0, and the avalanche hadn’t even gathered full momentum yet.
By the time the half-time whistle went, Risima Khosa, Ethan Adams, and Khuthadzo Rasivhaga had all added their names to the scoresheet — Rasivhaga grabbing a brace before the break — and the Junior Springboks were sitting at 50 unanswered points. Uruguay, newly promoted to this level of competition, were already in survival mode.
The second half was more of the same, except the replacements came on and kept the scoreboard moving without missing a beat. Khosa completed his hat-trick. Steenkamp completed his. Jayden Brits crossed twice off the bench.
Cheswill Jooste, Siphosethu Mnebelele, and Gert Kemp all got on the board. Akahlulwa Boqwana slotted six conversions after coming on, giving the backups a conversion tally that would have satisfied most starting tens.
Uruguay’s only reward for 80 minutes of endurance came right at the death, when replacement prop Sebastián Dalmao Rivero crossed the line and Juan Francisco Pereira added the conversion to make it 104-7. It was a consolation in the truest sense of the word.
JAY | JPS SAYS: “The scoreline will grab the headlines, and it should. But the real story here is what this performance says about the depth Kevin Foote has built. Norton, Moyo, Ahmed — three key players missing — and South Africa still put 104 on the board. That’s not a squad with a few good players. That’s a system.”
The result also carries historical weight beyond the occasion itself. This was the Junior Boks’ seventh consecutive win at the tournament, equalling their best-ever winning run — a streak that spans back to the 2012 and 2013 editions.
The 2025 title was claimed on Italian soil. The 2026 defence has now started with the kind of statement that travels through group stage WhatsApp threads and coaching staff video sessions alike.
Georgia await on 2 July, with Wales to follow on 7 July to close out pool action. The knockout rounds are scheduled for 12 and 13 July, with the final on 18 July.
Every team in Georgia now knows what’s coming.
The Junior Springboks aren’t here to participate. They’re here to retain!
📸 Images via SA Junior Rugby
