The Springbok Women’s Sevens’ HSBC SVNS World Championship campaign came to a disappointing end in Bordeaux on Sunday, but they showed good progress and believe that they can get back to the top tier of sevens rugby.
That is the view of SA head coach Cecil Afrika after his team finished in 12th place in the final tournament of the season and failed in their efforts to return to the HSBC SVNS Series for 2027.
“We did falter a bit as the weekend progressed,” said Afrika on Sunday.
“We started really well against France and had our moments to win that one, but as the weekend continued, we started to struggle to keep up, hence the defeats yesterday and today to Argentina and Brazil.”
Spain, who also contested qualified for the World Championship via HSBC SVNS 2, made it into the top eight, with Great Britain losing their core status.
Afrika said: “It can be done, but we just did not have enough depth and experience in the lead-up. We never really had a chance in Hong Kong, due to the short time together after the five injuries in SVNS 2, but you could see the growth and progress for the last two tournaments, where we had a month to prepare.”
The SA coach said he would like to see a bigger training squad and more playing opportunities as part of the next cycle, where they will have to qualify for the World Championships in the SVNS 2 series.
“We have time to plan and discuss the road ahead,” he said. “I am very proud of this group and how they grew into a squad that could compete and realise that they are not far off from where we need to be. So, I would like to give credit to the players, they really worked hard.”
Afrika said the next cycle will be as important, hence the need to not repeat mistakes: “We are going into the next cycle where we will have Olympic Games qualification, so we need to get our ducks in a row for that as well as trying to get back to the top eight.
“We will have some players returning from injury and that will help a lot, as we will need experienced players when we bring in new players to be exposed to sevens rugby. We will be back.”
Bok Women’s Sevens captain Zintle Mpupha said the players worked very hard to get to this point and the fact that they did not qualify for next year’s series is not due to a lack of effort.
“This sevens system requires hard work, and the team came a long way, from having to qualify for SVNS 3 and then SVNS 2 to where we were really competitive, especially in Spain,” said Mpupha.
“So, I am very proud of those efforts, we could not sustain it, which was a pity, as it was rather inexperience than lack of effort that cost us in the end.”
In their final game on Sunday, handling errors proved costly in their 11th-place play-off against Brazil, who won 24-17.
An early scoring opportunity by Vianca Boer was called back for a knock-on and some momentum was lost in the process in a match where the South Africans started strong.
Instead, it was Brazil who scored, with their premier player, Thalia Costa, hugely influential in dictating matters. Costa managed to round the swarming SA defence to set up the first try.
From the restart, a handling error handed possession back to Brazil, who scored to stretch their lead to 14-0 before Costa’s try just before the break made it 19-0.
South Africa came back well in the second half. Brazil was given a yellow card for slapping down a pass and in the next two minutes, South Africa scored twice.
First Maria Tshiremba, who had a very good weekend in France, crossed for a try after a good pass into space by Byrhandré Dolf, and then a good dummy by Zintle Mpupha set up a run in for Ayanda Malinga, which cut Brazil’s lead to seven points.
Costa intervened again and Brazil got a fourth try before a looping run by Tshiremba saw her earn a brace and finish the tournament on a high.
Scorers:
South Africa 17 (0) – Tries: Maria Tshiremba (2), Ayanda Malinga. Conversion: Byrhandré Dolf.
Brazil 24 (19) – Tries: Yasmim Soares, Isadora Lopes, Thalia Costa, Ariely Moreira. Conversions: Gisele Gomes Dos Santos (2).
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