The Springbok Women's Sevens team will hope that the intensity of play during the 2024 HSBC SVNS will benefit them in Madrid this weekend when they face Argentina, Belgium and Brazil in the play-off finals of the season-ending tournament, to be played at Civitas Metropolitano Stadium from Friday to Sunday.
The competition format involves two pools of four teams each, with South Africa and Brazil taking on two teams from the Challenger Series in their pool. The final placings from pool play with determine which teams will progress to the all-important play-off matches on Sunday, where the winners of the four quarter-finals will secure their places in HSBC SVNS 2025.
For Bok Women’s Sevens head coach Renfred Dazel, there is comfort in the knowledge that his players have prepared well for this shoot-out and that calm heads will be calling the plays in the game.
Dazel added that they are also used to the intensity playing in the world series: “We experienced that for seven tournaments in six months, so it’s a matter of using that to our advantage against teams that did not experience that. We are a settled group and believe that will take us all the way.
“We know what is needed – it’s straight forward, you need to win your quarter-final to stay on the circuit. That does create pressure, but we do have experienced campaigners with the ability to stay calm. We have prepared well; we know what we need to do and what is at stake. So, this is a straightforward assignment.”
Dazel said they are confident of their abilities against their Pool B opponents as well.
“I can't recall us playing against Argentina before, but their style is the same as the other South American teams,” he said. “They love to keep the ball alive, and they attack with their scrum half from set pieces.
“Belgium are familiar to us as we played them last year in both finals of the Challenger Series and trained against them as they used Stellenbosch as their base before the Dubai tournament.
“Then Brazil, who like us, did not make it into the top eight. The last time we played them, in Los Angeles, we came away with the win, so that is positive for us.”
Play-off pools:
A: Spain, Japan, Poland, China
B: Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Belgium.
Springbok Women's Sevens pool fixtures (live on SuperSport):
Friday 31 May:
12h00: Argentina
15h06: Belgium
Saturday 1 June:
13h51: Brazil