Wandisile Simelane hat-trick steers South Africa U20 to 30-17 win over Ireland

South Africa U20 30-17 Ireland U20, Narbonne
Scorecard

Wandisile Simelane scored a hat-trick as South Africa U20 went on to complete a 30-17 win over Ireland in their World Rugby U20 Championship in Narbonne on Sunday.

This is South Africa's second win of the tournament in as many games as they top Pool C while Ireland are at third.

South Africa got off to a promising start when Zak Burger scored a first minute try and Damian Willemse kicked the extras to make it 7-0 and 16 minutes later Muller du Plessis crossed over to take the scoreline to 12-0.

The first points for Ireland came in the 22nd minute when Conor Dean kicked a three-pointer and captain Caelan Doris with his 35th minute try saw them narrow down the gap to two points. South Africa lost PJ Steenkamp to sin-bin in the 40th minute.

Ireland got into lead for the first time in the game with Michael Silvester dotted down immediately after the break and Dean contributed with the conversion but South Africa dominated the remainder of the game with a hat-trick from Simelane to seal a 30-17 victory.

South Africa's hat-trick hero Wandisile Simelane: “It was a very important win for us, it was like cup final because we knew we needed to win to stay in the competition. From the start we said that it would take 80 minutes of hard work so I am very proud of the boys that we pulled it off."

Ireland captain Caelan Doris: “It was similar to the France game, there were a lot of positives but unfortunately in the last 20 minutes their power shone through and they got a couple of scores off the scrum. We gifted them that first score and have them a head started.

"We came back in the second 20 of the first half and I felt we were in a good place going into the second half but they came back and got another purple patch.”