Afrika hails 'massive growth' as Springbok Women's Sevens finish sixth in Nairobi

South Africa Women’s Sevens head coach Cecil Afrika described his side’s sixth-place finish at the Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens in Nairobi as a ‘mixed bag’, but insisted the tournament served its purpose as a development exercise for a largely inexperienced squad.

Afrika deliberately selected an ‘A’ team for the trip to Kenya, with only four of the travelling party — captain Vianca Boer, Jané Mulder, Shanidiné Bezuidenhout and Owami Mohuli — carrying previous HSBC SVNS experience. The decision reflects a deliberate effort to broaden the depth of players available to him ahead of the upcoming season, in which South Africa have already secured HSBC SVNS 2 qualification.

“It was definitely a mixed bag of results,” Afrika said. “The team performed within the range of anticipated outcomes if you consider that this was their first experience at such a level. The ladies gained real-time experience in the tournament, which allowed them to better understand demands of the game which is different to training where you can run it back if errors are made.”

South Africa opened the tournament with comfortable wins over Rwanda and Zimbabwe, but a defeat to Zambia on day one derailed their title ambitions. On the second day, they fell 24-17 to Uganda in the quarter-finals, thrashed Mauritius 48-0, and then lost 17-12 to Zambia in the fifth-place final. Uganda went on to claim the HSBC SVNS 3 qualification spot with a 33-0 victory over Tunisia in the final.

Among the younger players to catch the eye were Haylee Hardneck, Siphumelele Mdlalose and Tereské Kabuika-Ilunga, all of whom had previously featured against a USA Under-20 side, while Isabella Nel and Kiera Bowker have only recently switched to rugby from other sports.

“There was massive growth even though it’s not necessarily on the scoreboard,” Afrika said. “Some of the players really put up their hands for the wider training squad in the future and this was a perfect opportunity to recognise those players as we don’t get a lot of game time. The matches we lost were quite close and the games we won were quite comfortable. Overall, it was a positive weekend for us.”

The result marks a contrast to last season, when the Springbok Women’s Sevens progressed from HSBC SVNS 3 all the way to the HSBC SVNS World Championship — a trajectory Afrika will be hoping his expanded squad can eventually replicate.