There is a growing belief amongst the Springbok Women that their progress is not only real, but that they are also laying a solid foundation for the Rugby World Cup in England, where they will face Brazil, Italy and France in their pool next month.
That is the view of experienced scrumhalf Tayla Kinsey after the squad assembled in Cape Town for their final two warm-up matches before departing to England, against the Black Ferns XV.
They will play the New Zealand side on the next two Saturdays at Athlone Stadium and for Kinsey, those matches will provide the squad with more valuable game time against top class opposition.
“We needed the two Tests against Canada – it was a reality check in part, but also a confidence booster, especially in the second match where we could apply the lessons learned from the first encounter,” said Kinsey, who has been capped 40 times, as the team completed their training session at the UCT on Monday morning.
“We really saw that we are not that far behind the top teams and that did a lot for our belief going into the World Cup. The next two games will also be a learning opportunity for us, as the depth of New Zealand, being world champions, is such that the Black Ferns XV will also be a very tough opponent.
“They have eight capped Black Ferns players in their squad and three more who played for their national sevens team, so the challenge will be massive.”
Kinsey believes the Springbok Women not only gained confidence in their own abilities, but also gained belief in their game plan.
“The coaches are really doing a great job in getting us battle ready and fine-tuning our strengths,” she said.
“We saw that when we play as a team, we can be unstoppable, even against a top side like Canada. That self-belief is growing every day, and we do have the luxury of testing that against the New Zealand side who are also going to put up a massive fight. So, it is exciting times for all.”
For the scrumhalf, the weekend’s match will also be a return to their ‘unofficial home base’: “We played both WXV 2 tournaments at Athlone and that resulted in us getting a regular crowd of people coming to watch our games. We hope they will all be out there again on the weekend and even better, bring a plus one along. That will be awesome to have a good crowd in supporting us.”
Meanwhile, the Bok Women were boosted by the return of Lindelwa Gwala. South Africa’s most capped hooker missed the series against Canada, but she is back with the squad for the Black Ferns XV outings.
Springbok Women performance coach Swys de Bruin will name the match-23 for Saturday’s game on Thursday. The match will start at 17h00 and tickets are available from Quicket.
Starshine
Cricket became an Olympic sport in 1896. However, no matches were held because there was an insufficient number of teams who attended. Had the sport been played that year, cricket would have earned the distinction of being the only team sport to be played at the time. The first Olympic match in the next Olympics (1900) was participated in by the men’s teams. Great Britain (represented by the Devon and Somerset Wanderers) won gold.
blizzard vixen
Muttiah Muralitharan holds the record for the most wickets in ODI cricket (534) and the most number of Test wickets (800). Murali is the only cricketer to capture over 100 Test wickets at three events. He has also been awarded the most number of Man of the Series in Test cricket.