The Springbok Women’s Sevens team will approach this weekend’s HSBC SVNS Singapore event with one eye on a strong tournament performance, and the other eye firmly focused on Madrid and Paris.
Renfred Dazel’s team can’t reach their early-season goal of finishing in the top eight anymore to secure their place on next season’s Series, but the coach knows there is still a lot to play for when they run out in Singapore this weekend.
Their first pool match is against the USA at 05h22 (SA time) on Friday, followed by France at 10h10. The final pool game is on Saturday morning at 05h00 against Japan.
Dazel realises their pool encounters will not be easy, but hopes his squad can build some confidence and momentum going into the business end of the season.
After Singapore, they will travel to Madrid for the season finale (31 May to 2 June) and the chance of reclaiming a Series place through a play-off, before their debut at the Olympic Games in Paris at the end of July.
“We need to start building confidence for the Madrid tournament this weekend,” said Dazel.
“While we want to build momentum and improve, we’ve got a few players who can cover more than one position and that is something we’d also like to try and expand, to have a bit more versatility in the squad.
“We’re taking a similar approach to previous tournaments, but at the same time we’d like to try and improve our position on the standings, and hopefully get into a better pool for the Olympics.
“Ultimately, the most important thing is that we have to stick to our standards this weekend.”
Dazel said they are expecting three vastly different encounters in their pool. France are currently third on the standings, the USA are fourth and Japan occupy 10th spot, one position above South Africa.
If the Bok Women can emulate their performace in Los Angeles, where they finished sixth, they can catch Japan on the log, but it will take a big effort from the team.
Dazel said: “It’s never easy against the USA. The last time we played them was in the quarter-final in Los Angeles, where we actually led at one stage of the game before letting it slip towards the end.
“They have fast and physical players, and then we’ve got France, who were very physical in the fifth-place playoff (in LA), and Japan like to speed up play and shift the ball around, so all three teams will bring something different to the matches.
“However, this is not about them, but rather what we want to achieve this weekend, to play quality rugby for 14 minutes in each game.”
Springbok Women’s Sevens’ pool schedule in Singapore (SA times, all matches on SuperSport):
Friday 3 May
05h22: USA
10h10: France
Saturday 4 May
05h00: Japan
Springbok Women’s Sevens squad for Singapore:
#4 Zintle Mpupha (co-captain) – 10 tournaments, 55 points (11 tries)
#20 Kyla De Vries – 4 tournaments, 0 points
#18 Shiniqwa Lamprecht – 6 tournaments, 0 points
#3 Ayanda Malinga – 6 tournaments, 55 points (11 tries)
#12 Liske Lategan – 8 tournaments, 15 points: (3 tries)
#8 Shona-Leah Weston – 7 tournaments, 10 points (2 tries)
#13 Kemisetso Baloyi – 6 tournaments, 0 points
#6 Felicia Jacobs – 1 tournament, 0 points
#10 Mathrin Simmers (co-captain) – 19 tournaments, 35 points (7 tries)
#7 Eloise Webb – 7 tournaments, 7 points (1 try, 1 conversion)
#14 Simamkele Namba – 7 tournaments, 10 points (2 tries)
#9 Nadine Roos – 11 tournaments, 187 points (25 tries, 31 conversions)
#16 Maria Tshiremba – 4 tournaments, 20 points (4 tries)
Kingfisher
The most tries scored by a rugby player is 69 – Though Japan is yet to take the world cup, former player Daisuke Ohata holds the world record for most international tries with 69. He set the bar between 1996 and 2006 while playing on the wing and once scored eight tries in a single match. It’s going to be a long time before anyone beats that record!
Rusty Vortex
Sport Trivia: She was the first South African to win gold at the Olympics after 44 years. She won the gold medal in the 100m and 200m breaststroke in Atlanta in 1996. Answer: Penny Heyns. Penny Heynes held 14 records for breaststroke. During the 1999 Pan Pacific games, she broke 6 world records, (many of them her own previous records), and by the end of 1999 she held the record for the 50m, 100m and 200m long course breaststroke, simultaneously.