Discipline issues cost Springbok Women in Sevens Challenger Series

Springbok Women's Sevens coach Renfred Dazel admitted that the team's lack of discipline in the semi-final of the second World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger tournament in Cape Town on Saturday afternoon had a knock-on effect on the evening's final. 

The Bok Women's 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 17-0 to Kenya in the final.

"I think for us it was obviously important to do well in this tournament where I think we came third last weekend. It's a better position this weekend but the girls are very disappointed in the way we played in the final," he said.

"There was obviously a bit of discipline (lacking) in the game before, in the semi-final where we got four yellow cards. And I think that just filtered throughout the team. And in the final we couldn't hang onto our ball, we lost our ball when we had the opportunity to score points."

But Dazel said they are still on track for their 2025 ambition – to qualify for next season’s HSBC SVNS.

"I think for us it's also now to look at and see what we need to do and where. There's lots of lessons learnt over these last two weekends, playing one or two players not out of position but giving them opportunities against a single opposition," he said.

"We lost Zintle (Mpupha) in the final and that's also one of the leaders, and it was a massive setback for us going into the final. But that's rugby for you. You need to look forward and you need to see how can you build and what you can do to make the system work."

South Africa are second on the log with one tournament, in Krakow, Poland on  April 11 and 12  to go. According to Dazel, they are determined to qualify for the HSBC SVNS play-offs in Los Angeles in May, where the top four Challenger sides will face the bottom-placed four teams in the world series.

“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.