Joe Bailey: From 'horrible' to 'everyone singing, dancing, hugging'

Joe Bailey wasn’t shy in revealing how anguished he was watching England in the closing moments of the muddy epic against the Junior Boks on Tuesday night. The World Rugby U20 Championship Pool C fixture on the Cape Flats had been deadlocked since the 51st minute and the Exeter lock had been looking on from the moment three minutes later when his number was called and Olamide Sodeke was sent into the gruelling contest.

A 12-all draw at the weather-beaten stadium in Athlone would still have left the English topping their pool and advancing to next Sunday’s Cape Town Stadium semi-final versus Ireland. Yet, the rejuvenating effect that winning 17-12 so late on could have on tired bodies shouldn’t be underestimated.

England had 87 per cent of the possession in the closing 10 minutes and with the referee Federico Vedovelli tired of repeated South African infringements near the try line and brandishing a yellow card to Divan Fuller, the home defence was finally breached in the 86th minute with James Isaacs getting over off the back of maul.

Unbridled celebrations ignited, releasing all the tension that had built. “God, it was horrible,” quipped Bailey to RugbyPass when asked what it was like monitoring the end-game battle for inches from the touchline. “I hate watching from the bench because you can’t control anything, you have just got to watch and sit tight. I had full faith in the boys, I trusted them, we trust each other to get the job done and we did.

“We kept getting advantages so we were free to play a lot of the time and when we stick it in the corner, we back our maul and we scored, so very happy. We’re ecstatic. We worked really, really hard for our win as you can tell and came through right at the end. We fought until the very end and that is what we pride ourselves on.

“It’s brilliant. Everyone is singing, everyone is dancing, everyone is hugging each other. We are embracing each other. That is what is so special about this team, we are so tight as a group. We are going to enjoy this and we’re onto the next game.”

Bailey was immense while he was out there in the thick of the slog. There were 14 tackles, only three less than the chart-topping Nathan Michelow, who played the entire match. There were also seven carries, including the 44th-minute foray that ended with him dotting down over the line to give England a fleeting 12-7 lead.

“It was a maul five metres out and I was just the lucky guy who got the ball,” he explained, downplaying his name being on the match day three scoresheet. “It was a pack effort at the end of the day when it comes from a maul try and I was at the end of it. Yeah, very happy.

“They [South Africa] came out flying. They were very physical at the start and very physical throughout the game but we stuck in it. We were against the wind in the first half so we knew we had to stay in it and then we could try to blow them away in the second half and yeah, we pulled through.”

This ‘pulled through’ success against the Junior Boks now has them pitted against Ireland, the Six Nations rivals with whom they shared an incredible 32-all draw with at The Rec in Bath 18 weeks ago.

England went on to clinch that title a week later with a win in France, but how they stack up preparation-wise heading into the semi-finals will be important given the workload imbalance caused by the Irish having Tuesday off as their Pool B-deciding fixture against Australia in Athlone was cancelled.

“We know what to expect with Ireland,” figured Bailey. “We know they are a very good team so we are going to have to recover really well, especially as they missed their game today so they are going to basically have a 10-day turnaround. We are going to have to work really hard on our recovery and work on our reviews and bounce back.”

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