The Springbok Women's Sevens got the job done at the HSBC SVNS 2 tournament in Montevideo at the weekend, and can look forward to Sao Paulo next weekend with one eye on the word championship.
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The Springbok Women’s Sevens side achieved their primary objective of qualifying for the HSBC SVNS World Championship, despite finishing third at the Montevideo SVNS2 tournament in Uruguay this past weekend.
South Africa won three of their five matches at Estadio Charrua, producing passages of high-quality rugby that ultimately proved enough to secure their place among the elite on the global stage. For head coach Cecil Afrika, the result was a fair reflection of the team’s overall progress – even if inconsistency denied them a shot at the title.
Afrika pinpointed two brief lapses as the difference between a tournament win and a third-place finish.
“We had about 14 minutes of poor rugby across the weekend,” he said. “That was the first half against Spain in our opening game and then the second half against Argentina in the last match. Outside of that, I thought we were excellent.”
Those lapses proved costly. South Africa fell 15-14 to Spain after falling behind early, and later slipped to a 22-10 defeat against Argentina after allowing three second-half tries. In-between, however, the Bok Women impressed with victories over China, Brazil and Kenya, showcasing a blend of attacking precision and defensive resilience.
“Our defensive effort was massive and that really put teams under pressure,” Afrika said.
“In the other matches we were clinical, controlled things well and executed our plans. I can’t fault the effort – the players gave everything.”
Beyond the immediate results, the tournament also highlighted the steady development within the squad as South Africa continues to build depth in the women’s sevens programme.
“We gave Shanidinè Bezuidenhout the opportunity to debut in this tournament and she did well, while someone like Lerato Makua, who has not played that many tournaments before, really stood out with her effort. She has now matured into a very good international sevens player and that came from being exposed to this level of rugby.”
“We don’t always get a lot of exposure, so it’s important to use tournaments like this to build depth and give players experience,” Afrika added.
Importantly, the squad came through the physically demanding weekend without any major injury concerns, a crucial factor with the next tournament in Sao Paulo looming.
“At the moment everyone looks healthy, but we’ll reassess once we arrive in Brazil,” said Afrika. “It’s a back-to-back weekend, so player management will be key.”
World Rugby confirmed that Argentina (40 points) and South Africa (34) have already secured qualification for the coming world championship events in Hong Kong, Valladolid and Bordeaux, with one qualifying tournament still to play. Spain (34) look set to finish third, with China (28) and Brazil (22) in a race for the fourth and final qualification berth.
For South Africa, though, the job is done and the focus now shifts to sharpening their game ahead of the global showpiece where a top-eight finish will take them back to the top tier of sevens rugby next season.