Springbok Women’s Sevens coach Renfred Dazel said that despite their HSBC SVNS Cape Town performances over the weekend, he is still confident that the team will achieve their season goal of finishing in the top eight of the series.
Dazel spoke after a disappointing home event, where they lost all five games and finished 12th in the second tournament of the new series.
They will travel to the third tournament in Perth at the end of January in 11th place in the standings. The top eight sides will automatically qualify for next season’s series.
“Last weekend we finished 10th in Dubai and got three bonus points by finishing within seven points of our opponents, but this weekend, we hardly got out of the blocks,” said Dazel.
“That was the disappointing part, but if we look back over the two tournaments, there were enough to build on and that makes me confident that we can be competitive next month in Perth.
“We lost some key decision-makers in our squad before Dubai and two more here in Cape Town, and most of them will be back for the next tournament. The reality is that we needed to replace them with less experienced players and if you add the pressures that come with being at home, we did not adapt as well as we could.”
Dazel lost experienced flyhalf Eloise Webb before Dubai and co-captain Zintle Mpupha and playmaker Libbie Janse van Rensburg for this tournament. To compound matters, co-captains Rights Mkhari and Mathrin Simmers were both injured on Saturday, which left the team thin on leadership and experience.
“We will take stock of where we came up short, have our medical assessments and then will take a break for three weeks,” said Dazel.
“We will be back in training at Stellenbosch on 3 January and will then get our ducks in a row for the team to travel to Perth later in the month.
“I am confident that we will be able to select a strong side to travel to Australia and one that can play competitively over there. We are still aiming for that top eight spot that will secure qualification for next year’s series.”