The Springbok Girls’s Sevens loved the highs of successful an essential pool match but additionally skilled the lows of discovering the depth of prime groups comparable to Australia and Canada too scorching to deal with at this weekend’s Cathay / HSBC SVNS Hong Kong.
That was the frank evaluation from SA coach Cecil Afrika as his group accomplished the primary of three HSBC SVNS World Championship occasions in twelfth place and now have a large battle on their fingers to climb their manner into the highest eight within the closing two occasions in Spain and France subsequent month.
Defeats on day one to Australia and Canada had been adopted by a well-known win over Nice Britain of their closing pool match, however the Bok Girls faltered thereafter, shedding to Nice Britain within the ninth-place semi-final earlier than happening in opposition to Argentina on Sunday.
“The win over Nice Britain on Saturday was huge for us as a result of they’d core standing this yr and we didn’t,” stated Afrika.
“It proved to us that we are able to play at that stage and win, however provided that we use our alternatives. After we performed them once more on the identical day, however didn’t do this, we paid the worth. That was a very good lesson to study, and we can be higher for it.”
Coming into the match with out plenty of injured common starters meant the Bok Girls had been below stress from the beginning, however they’d their moments in opposition to Australia and Canada, who’re within the prime 4 of the rankings.
Afrika stated: “We noticed once we caught to our plans, we achieved outcomes. The group didn’t have that a lot time collectively as a consequence of all of the accidents and brief turnaround, so we are able to actually be higher within the departments the place we did properly.
“And naturally, we can be higher in these areas the place we confirmed weak point. We have now plenty of work to do again at residence.”
An damage to Asisipho Plaatjies on day one didn’t assist both, neither did the pink card to Lerato Makua for head contact in opposition to Nice Britain of their playoff match on the second day.
The depth of the matches additionally caught up together with his squad, Afrika stated: “We aren’t used to that and couldn’t reply properly sufficient. Particularly our kick-offs and kick-off receives had been lower than commonplace and that’s an space we are going to work one as soon as we come again residence.
“I’m happy with a few of our work on assault, the place we managed to create some good tries when everybody was on the identical web page. We couldn’t at all times maintain that, which is one thing we are going to attempt to wonderful tune as we put together for the tournaments in Spain and France subsequent month.”
Chosen Springbok Girls’s Sevens statistics:
Most factors:
20: Maria Tshiremba – 4 tries
8: Byrhandré Dolf – 4 conversions
Most tries:
4: Maria Tshiremba
1: Lerato Makua, Zintle Mpupha, Shanidiné Bezuidenhout
Pool draw for the HSBC SVNS Valladolid:
A: New Zealand, Japan, Brazil, Argentina
B: Australia, USA, Fiji, South Africa
C: France, Canada, Spain, Nice Britain
Issued by SA Rugby Communications
