SOUTH Africa's Under-20 captain, Arno Botha, insists that the Baby Boks will bounce back after their 26-20 defeat against England as they prepare to face Ireland tomorrow in the battle for fifth place at the IRB Junior World Championship.

Kickoff is at 8.10pm.

The South Africans missed out on a semifinal position due to the defeat and an inferior points differential to Australia, who conceded a 31-25 defeat to France in their third Pool C game played in Treviso.

"There's been a great fighting spirit in the squad over the past couple of weeks, and while we were disappointed at Saturday's defeat against England, I believe the players are going to stand up and aim to end this tournament on a high," Botha said.

"All of us who were involved in Saturday night's defeat know that we let ourselves down. We let ourselves down, our coaches, management team and South Africa.

"We know we are capable of much better performances than we have showed here in Italy.

"There are two more games left in the tournament, and all we can do now is simply win both those matches. We want to ensure that we leave Italy with four wins from five matches."