This victory means the SA Under-20s are the only unbeaten team left in the competition as they qualified in top spot for the semi-finals, which will be played in Rosario on Monday. France are the defending champions. Read Chean Roux's post-match comments here.

Vaughen Isaacs (fullback) scored a try in the seventh minute’after he received a sharp pass out wide from Rikus Pretorius (centre), with Jaden Hendrikse (scrumhalf) adding his first penalty goal six minutes later to hand the Junior Boks an 8-0 lead.

They built on this shortly after compliments of a fantastic try by JJ van der Mescht (lock), who gathered the ball from a stolen lineout and showed his pace to power his way to the tryline.

The Junior Springboks were reduced to 14 men shortly after as Dylan Richardson (flank) received a yellow card for a knock-down, and shortly after being restored to 15 players, Sibusiso Sangweni (flank) was sent to the sin-bin for a grass-cutter.

With the SA U20s’ defence holding well, New Zealand opted for a penalty goal in the 34^th minute, and that proved to be their only points in the half.

Chean Roux’s charges, in turn, managed to apply consistent pressure until the break and their efforts allowed Hendrikse to add two more penalty goals in the dying minutes to push the team 19-3 ahead at halftime.

New Zealand earned the first points in the second half through a penalty try after Junior Springbok flyhalf James Mollentze made an early tackle on the tryline, with the offence seeing him also being sent to the sin-bin.

After several hard-fought minutes of rugby, Nohamba slotted over the team’s fourth penalty goal after another dominant scrum to stretch the team’s lead to 22-10 with nine minutes to play.

The Junior Boks’ lead shrunk again shortly thereafter as Lalomilo Lalomilo scored a try out wide, which saw them trail by five points with five minutes to play.

Nohamba, however, gave the SA U20s an eight-point buffer with his second penalty goal in the 78^th minute, which denied the New Zealanders the bonus point they needed to progress to the top-four and saw the Junior Springboks book their semi-final spot.

Scorers:

Junior Springboks 25 (19) – Tries: Vaughen Isaacs, JJ van der Mescht. Penalty Goals: Jaden Hendrikse (3), Sanele Nohamba (2).

New Zealand 17 (3) – Tries: Penalty Try, Lalomilo Lalomilo. Conversion: Fergus Burke. Penalty Goal: Burke.