For 2015, the IRB Junior World Championship was rebranded as the World Rugby Under 20 Championship. South Africa started the competition with a 33–5 win against hosts Italy and recorded a 40–8 win against Samoa and a 46–13 win over Australia in their remaining pool matches to finish top of Pool B to qualify for the semi-finals with the best record pool stage of all the teams in the competition. They came up against an England side that beat them in the 2014 final and were eliminated by the same opponents again, losing 20–28 to be eliminated from the competition. They restored some pride by winning their third-place play-off match against France 31–18 to win the bronze medal.