Ireland’s next opponents, South Africa, stumbled to a 33-27 victory over Georgia in the opening round of the World Rugby U20 Championship 2018 in Stade Aimé Giral, Perpignan.

South Africa opened the scoring inside 10 minutes through Wandisile Simelane before Georgia’s Lasha Lomidze touched down after a lovely dink from Tedo Abzhandadze.

Muller Uys scored for South Africa before Demur Tapladze intercepted a stray pass to give the Georgians a 17-12 lead at the interval thanks to 2 conversions an a penalty from Gela Aprasidze

Tyrone Green and Zak Burger crossed within ten minutes of the restart to send the 2012 winners into a 26-17 lead.

Uys scored his second try shortly before the hour mark while a second Aprasidze penalty and a Luka Dvalishvili try gave Georgia a glimmer of hope nine minutes before the end.

Match gallery below.