Afrika Happy

The grit and determination shown by the Springbok Women in Brazil over the weekend, where they secured fifth place in the HSBC SVNS 2 tournament in Sao Paulo, left coach Cecil Afrika a happy man as the team prepares to arrive back in South Africa on Tuesday, eager to move on to the next job.

That, of course, is the HSBC SVNS World Championship Series, where the first tournament kicks off in Hong Kong in three weeks.

The South Africans finished in third overall after the events in Nairobi, Montevideo, and Sao Paulo, respectively, which saw them progress to the big dance, although this did not stop them from reflecting on some crucial character tests along the way, particularly in the last two tournaments in South America.

It started with a delayed arrival in Uruguay due to flight challenges and finished with them being able to field only eight available players on Sunday in day two of the Estadio Nicolau Alayon event.

Despite this, the South Africans completed the final event as the team that missed the least number of tackles over the five matches played. They also occupied second place on defence, with a 79% tackle completion rate at the end of the series.

“We had to dig deep, really deep, and the way our players responded was massive,” said Afrika. “They knew that it was up to them to play for the team, and it was great to see how we came back from that to finish strongly by overhauling China to end the series with a win.”

Afrika will be on speed dial with team doctor, Minjon Ras, this week, as the medical assessments on Nadine Roos, Shannon-Leigh Windvogel, Liske Lategan, and Simamkele Namba will determine their availability for Hong Kong.

Amongst those misfortunes, though, the coach was pleased with the performances by debutants, Shanidiné Bezuidenhout and Maceala Samboya, and the reintroduction of Catha Jacobs to the Sevens code.

“Their growth was great to watch,” said Afrika. “All of them have work-ons for sure, but no one just snaps into becoming a Sevens player. It takes time, and you need to learn lessons along the way.

“Catha’s carries were something special, and we’ll work on her conditioning. Maceala is just raw talent, but she quickly got the hang of the defensive line-up and made some massive tackles, while Shanidiné had to step into Nadine’s shoes on day two, and did very well.

“Her basics around the scrum and throwing the ball into the line-out under massive pressure improved a lot, and she came of age against China, not only scoring the try that gave us the lead, but she also chased down a Chinese runner and tackled her when we were in a position to close out the game.”

These are the moments that mould players and teams, and Afrika is confident that they will all improve when they face the top eight teams who recently played in the HSBC SVNS series.

“The SVNS 2 was great and so competitive,” the coach said. “We saw last night that the very last game of the third tournament determined the fourth qualifier to go to the World Champs, and that shows how close all the teams were. There is another step up now, but as we responded every time, I’m confident we’ll do so come the next three events.”

Final HSBC SVNS 2 log standings:

1. 54 Argentina
2. 50 Spain
3. 46 South Africa
4. 42 Brazil
5. 40 Kenya
6. 38 China

Selected SVNS 2 stats

Points scorers:

• 61 Nadine Roos
• 40 Maria Tshiremba
• 30 Ayanda Malinga
• 26 Byrhandrè Dolf

Try-scorers:

• 8 Maria Tshiremba
• 6 Ayanda Malinga
• 5 Nadine Roos
• 4 Byrhandrè Dolf, Patience Mokone

The HSBC SVNS World Championship Series kicks off in Hong Kong on 17 April, before moving to Valladolid in May, and finishing up in Bordeaux in June. South Africa, Argentina, Spain and Brazil will line up alongside core sides New Zealand, Australia, USA, France, Canada, Fiji, Japan and Great Britain.