The Springbok Women's Sevens enjoyed the highs of winning an important pool match but also experienced the lows of finding the intensity of top teams such as Australia and Canada too hot to handle at this weekend's Cathay / HSBC SVNS Hong Kong.
That was the frank assessment from SA coach Cecil Afrika as his team completed the first of three HSBC SVNS World Championship events in 12th place and now have a massive battle on their hands to climb their way into the top eight in the final two events in Spain and France next month.
Defeats on day one to Australia and Canada were followed by a famous win over Great Britain in their final pool match, but the Bok Women faltered thereafter, losing to Great Britain in the ninth-place semi-final before going down against Argentina on Sunday.
“The win over Great Britain on Saturday was massive for us because they had core status this year and we did not,” said Afrika.
“It proved to us that we can play at that level and win, but only if we use our opportunities. When we played them again on the same day, but did not do that, we paid the price. That was a good lesson to learn, and we will be better for it.”
Coming into the tournament without a number of injured regular starters meant the Bok Women were under pressure from the start, but they had their moments against Australia and Canada, who are in the top four of the rankings.
Afrika said, “We saw that when we stuck to our plans, we achieved results. The team did not have that much time together due to all the injuries and short turnaround, so we can certainly be better in the departments where we did well.
“And of course, we will be better in those areas where we showed weakness. We have a lot of work to do back at home.”
An injury to Asisipho Plaatjies on day one did not help either, nor did the red card to Lerato Makua for head contact against Great Britain in their playoff match on the second day.
The intensity of the matches also caught up with his squad, Afrika said: “We are not used to that and could not respond well enough. Especially our kick-offs and kick-off receives were not up to standard, and that is an area we will work one once we come back home.
“I am pleased with some of our work on attack, where we managed to create some good tries when everyone was on the same page. We could not always sustain that, which is something we will try to fine-tune as we prepare for the tournaments in Spain and France next month.”
Selected Springbok Women's Sevens statistics:
Most points:
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, Great Britain