Losing against Kenya in the final of the second World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger tournament in Cape Town on Saturday evening was a massive disappointment, but Springbok Women's Sevens coach Renfred Dazel said they are still on track for their 2025 ambition – to qualify for next season’s HSBC SVNS.
The Bok Women Sevens won both their pool games on Friday and had to work hard for victory in the semi-final against Czechia on Saturday, before going down by 17-0 to Kenya in the final.
South Africa are second on the log with one tournament, in Krakow, Poland on 11 and 12 April, to go. According to Dazel, they are determined to qualify for the HSBC SVNS playoffs in Los Angeles in May, where the top four Challenger sides will face the bottom-placed four teams in the world series.
“It was a poor performance in the final and to against lose to Kenya, was disappointing,” said Dazel.
“We did not play well at all; we made at least six handling errors and all of those were in attacking positions.
“To add to that, we had four yellow cards in the semi-final against Czechia and lost Zintle Mpupha to suspension. So it was not our best day, but the fact that we improved our standing despite that, is a positive.”
For Dazel, the performances of the last two weekends were fruitful as he blooded two new players at this level and a few less experienced squad members got valuable game time.
“Those are all wins for me and the group will benefit from that,” he said.
“We are losing four senior players who will join the Springbok Women training camp and will not be available for the trip to Poland, but we will also welcome Simamkele Namba back from injury, as well as Kyla de Vries, who was very close to selection for this week.”
Kenya (40 points), South Africa (34), Argentina (30) and Colombia (30) are the front runners after the two tournaments hosted in South Africa, while Nadine Roos topped the points scoring list after the two tournaments with 74 points.