The Junior Boks have set their sights on a third-place finish at the World Rugby U20 Championship.

South Africa suffered a 39-17 loss to England in Monday’s semi-final in Manchester and now face Argentina in the third-place playoff on Saturday in Salford, in a rematch of their Pool C clash which Argentina won 19-13.

‘We are still hurting from the defeat against England,’ said assistant coach Nazeem Adams. ‘We let ourselves down on attack and defence. But it was good to see the players fight back in the second half. That character is exactly what we need in the bronze playoff against Argentina.

‘We know it will be a challenging encounter against Argentina, as we saw in our pool match, but we are determined to make up for that defeat. Our focus now is on a strong finish to the tournament, and we are determined to achieve that.'

The Junior Boks will be without the services of wing S’busiso Nkosi and scrumhalf Embrose Papier, who returned home on Tuesday due to thigh and ankle injuries respectively, which ruled them out of the clash against England. A decision on the possible call-up of replacements will be made in due course.

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