The wait is over and all the planning and training towards WXV will finally become reality for the Springbok Women when they take on Scotland in the opening round of the exciting new global women’s competition at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch on Friday.
For Libbie Janse van Rensburg, vice-captain of South Africa, the day comes with positive anticipation and a determined mindset, and she firmly believes that the Springbok Women will make the most of this unique opportunity provided by the inaugural WXV.
“We are ready. We worked hard towards this tournament, and we are good to go,” Janse van Rensburg confirmed.
The Bok Women flyhalf feels that the amount of rugby played by the team this year will boost their performances in the final three matches of the season, while their training camps in the last couple of weeks also helped.
“We have played a lot of rugby throughout the year, which was valuable to us as players generally because we grow as players the more, we play,” she said.
“We slowly puzzled everything together during the training camps and matches we played in, so we are confident that we can deliver very competitive performances against very good opposition.
“The camps aligned us well, everyone had that feeling of burning chests in tough sessions and we could tweak some plays in the warm-up games, so we are on the same page. Mentally we are also in a good place, so we are good to go as a team.”
Janse van Rensburg made her debut at the Danie Craven Stadium in 2021, scored a try and has been a regular starter since that Test against Kenya.
“The field holds good memories, but it will be even better if we manage to produce a performance everyone can be proud of,” she said.
“A lot has happened since that day we played Kenya at Danie Craven Stadium and I think everyone has become a better player and we became a better team.”
On a personal level, Janse van Rensburg said she is at ease with her development at flyhalf: “I wanted to learn so many things at once, but I’ve also realised that I can’t be impatient in wanting to become a better player. As the driver of general play for our team, it is important for me to stay calm.”
Janse van Rensburg will face Scotland for the first time after 17 Tests and she is keen to get stuck in.
“It is going to be a good opportunity for me to test myself against such a highly rated team, to test my ability as the driver, to be confronted by a team that has lots of experience and time together on the field,” she said.
“The same applies to the rest of the squad, we are really excited about the challenge. And we are all determined to walk off that field with the best possible result, a win.”
Head-to-Head:
05/06/2010: Lasswade, Scotland won 27-8
12/06/2010: Lasswade, Scotland won 41-17
30/09/2019: Cape Town, Scotland won 47-5
05/10/2019: Cape Town, Scotland won 38-15