The Springbok Women’s Sevens’ HSBC SVNS World Championship campaign came to a disappointing end in Bordeaux on Sunday, but they showed good progress and believe that they can get back to the top tier of sevens rugby.
That is the view of SA head coach Cecil Afrika after his team finished in 12th place in the final tournament of the season and failed in their efforts to return to the HSBC SVNS Series for 2027.
“We did falter a bit as the weekend progressed,” said Afrika on Sunday.
“We started really well against France and had our moments to win that one, but as the weekend continued, we started to struggle to keep up, hence the defeats yesterday and today to Argentina and Brazil.”
Spain, who also qualified for the World Championship via HSBC SVNS 2, made it into the top eight, with Great Britain losing their core status.
Afrika said: “It can be done, but we just did not have enough depth and experience in the lead-up. We never really had a chance in Hong Kong, due to the short time together after the five injuries in SVNS 2, but you could see the growth and progress for the last two tournaments, where we had a month to prepare.”
The SA coach said he would like to see a bigger training squad and more playing opportunities as part of the next cycle, where they will have to qualify for the World Championships in the SVNS 2 series.
“We have time to plan and discuss the road ahead,” he said. “I am very proud of this group and how they grew into a squad that could compete and realise that they are not far off from where we need to be. So, I would like to give credit to the players; they really worked hard.”
Afrika said the next cycle will be as important, hence the need to not repeat mistakes: “We are going into the next cycle where we will have Olympic Games qualification, so we need to get our ducks in a row for that as well as trying to get back to the top eight.
“We will have some players returning from injury, and that will help a lot, as we will need experienced players when we bring in new players to be exposed to sevens rugby. We will be back.”
Bok Women’s Sevens captain Zintle Mpupha said the players worked very hard to get to this point and the fact that they did not qualify for next year’s series is not due to a lack of effort.
“This sevens system requires hard work, and the team came a long way, from having to qualify for SVNS 3 and then SVNS 2 to where we were really competitive, especially in Spain,” said Mpupha.
“So, I am very proud of those efforts; we could not sustain it, which was a pity, as it was rather inexperience than lack of effort that cost us in the end.”