A squad of 30 players will leave on Sunday for Georgia, flying via Istanbul in Turkey to their tour base destination in Tbilisi, where the South African Under-20’s will play a club fixture and two international against their Georgian counterparts.

Their first match is on 19 February against a club side, with the two internationals against Georgia U20 earmarked for 23 and 28 February, before they return to South Africa on 1 March.

The enlarged training squad have been in camp for several weeks in Stellenbosch as they continue with preparations for the forthcoming international season. Apart from the trip to Georgia, the Junior Boks are also set to play in the U20 Rugby Championship and the World Rugby U20 Championship. Both host venues for these tournaments must still be confirmed.

Meanwhile, their preparation for Georgia included two solid training matches against the university sides of Maties and Ikeys, giving the coaching staff an excellent opportunity to gauge the squad’s state of readiness.

Looking ahead to the tour, Junior Bok coach Kevin Foote said the players and management staff have prepared well and are looking forward to the experience.

“We had an excellent training week, starting with a hit out against Ikeys, and we are grateful to them for giving us the opportunity to test our skills and we want to wish them and Maties well for their FNB Varsity Cup campaigns,” said Foote.

“Our set piece will always be a great focus for us as a South African group, but against Ikeys we focused on our defence and their running counter-attack. We tested both those aspects and some unstructured play, and then we also had a solid units’ session, all of which were very valuable exercises.

“We are now preparing hard for Georgia. The weather over there is obviously cold, and how we adapt from (the hot summer conditions in) Stellenbosch to their winter will be important in what we can control.”

Foote said the tour will give the SA U20s an important opportunity to test their game management in addition to how to adopt to different playing conditions.

“As a group, we now have an opportunity to experience and enjoy the tour both from a rugby and a cultural perspective, which is something really exciting to look forward to,” he said. “We are looking to make good connections amongst one another, get to know each other better and to play some good rugby.”

Match schedule:

Wednesday, 19 February: Junior Boks vs Lelo Saracens (15h00)
Sunday, 23 February: Junior Boks vs Georgia U20 (16h00)
Friday, 28 February: Junior Boks vs Georgia U20 (15h00)