The Springbok Women’s Sevens squad named for the second leg of the HSBC SVNS World Championships have a much more settled look and given the additional time to prepare, Cecil Afrika (head coach) backs his charges for a positive performance next weekend at Estadio Jose Zorrilla in Valladolid.
The South Africans suffered a rash of injuries before the first leg of the World Championship, in Hong Kong last month, and with limited time to prepare for that event, they finished 12th out of 12 teams, but Afrika has much more belief for this tournament in northern Spain, before they head to Bordeaux in France for the final stop of the season.
The return of Vianca Boer to the squad brings an element of versatility, while the inclusion of Patience Mokone adds some try-scoring pace to the South African outfit.
Neither of the two have experienced top tier sevens rugby before, but Afrika is confident that their exploits in SVNS 2 and the Challenger Series will be helpful in Europe.
“There is a big difference between our preparation for Hong Kong, where we had to replace four injured players and blood some youngsters in the week before departure and this squad of 14 players travelling,” said Afrika.
“We are still going there to get into the knock-out stages and to improve our overall ranking and this team has the ability to deliver.”
Afrika lamented the loss of Asisipho Plaatjies, who ruptured her Achilles in Hong Kong, an injury that will keep her out of the game for the rest of the year: “We wish her a speedy rehabilitation and recovery, she had an operation a couple of weeks back.”
Plaatjies joins Nadine Roos, Liske Lategan, Simamkele Namba and Shannon-Lee Windvogel on the 2026 injury list.
“Vianca returns after an injury in SVNS 3 and while she has not played in a while, her learning curve remains very good,” the SA coach said.
“The intensity will be a challenge, but I have more than enough confidence in her contributions, while Patience showed in SVNS 2 that she can score tries and impact results.”
The review sessions following the Hong Kong tournament, where the team scored a famous win over Great Britain, was positive and contributed to their upbeat mindset to their Pool B matches.
“We saw many good things in those reviews, and we could apply those learnings to our training sessions,” said Afrika. “We will have to be ruthless in our approach and added that element to our preparation.”
The squad will leave for Spain on Sunday.
South Africa’s Pool B fixtures (SA times, all matches live on SuperSport):
Friday 29 May
10h22: USA
14h29: Australia
Saturday 30 May
10h00: Fiji
Springbok Women’s Sevens squad (with HSBC SVNS stats):
#3 Patience Mokone – uncapped
#4 Zintle Mpupha – 13 tournaments, 65 points (13 tries)
#7 Maria Tshiremba – 7 tournaments, 70 points (14 tries)
#10 Byrhandré Dolf – 4 tournaments, 8 points (4 conversions)
#15 Vianca Boer – uncapped
#16 Shiniqwa Lamprecht – 9 tournaments, 0 points
#19 Shanidiné Bezuidenhout – 1 tournament, 5 points (1 try)
#20 Catha Jacobs – 2 tournaments, 0 points
#21 Jané Mulder – 1 tournament, 0 points
#22 Owami Mohuli – 1 tournament, 0 points
#23 Ayanda Malinga – 9 tournaments, 70 points (14 tries)
#26 Lerato Makua – 2 tournaments, 5 points (one try)
#27 Maceala Samboya – 1 tournament, 0 points
#30 Eloise Webb – 10 tournaments, 7 points (1 try, 1 conversion)