Knee injury rules Nadine Roos out of South Africa's July Test series against USA Women

Nadine Roos, South Africa’s most decorated women’s rugby player, will not feature in the Springbok Women’s two-match Test series against the USA Women’s Eagles in July after a knee injury she sustained during HSBC SVNS 2 competition in March ruled her out of selection contention.

Roos, 30, is a three-time SA Women’s Rugby Player of the Year and the reigning 2025 Springbok Women’s Sevens Player of the Year. Since the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, she has been a consistent presence in Cecil Afrika’s sevens programme, which has progressed from HSBC SVNS 3 to the HSBC SVNS World Championship this season.

“Nadine is a proper athlete who just wants to get better, and she’s doing everything she possibly can to speed up her recovery while following the guidelines of the professional medical teams here,” Springbok Women assistant coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt said. There is some positive news in the squad, however, with senior back-row forward Aseza Hele set to return from a broken finger.

South Africa will host the Eagles at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on 4 July, then again the following week at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria — both fixtures forming part of Nations Championship doubleheaders alongside the Springbok Men’s matches against England and Scotland. It will mark the first time South Africa have hosted the USA on home soil. The two sides last met in March 2024, when the Eagles won 38-17 at the Trailfinders Sports Ground in London.

Johannes-Haupt and fellow assistant coach Franzel September recently guided South Africa to their fifth Rugby Africa Women’s Cup in as many years, sealing the continental title with a 35-20 victory over Kenya. Jakkie Cilliers contributed a try, two conversions and two penalties in that win. Head coach Swys de Bruin remained in Stellenbosch to work with a separate group of players during the tournament.

The USA arrive having finished third in the Pacific Four Series, a competition that also featured Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Johannes-Haupt acknowledged the gap in recent high-level competition between the two squads.

“USA, we definitely expect a proper encounter,” he said. “They’ve competed against bigger and higher-ranked teams. We’ve played in Africa, so you can’t really measure where we are compared to where they are. But we know we’re definitely going there to put our best foot forward and do the best we possibly can.”

The July Tests against the Eagles, along with a September fixture against the Black Ferns at FNB Stadium as part of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, will serve as South Africa’s primary preparation ahead of the WXV Global Series.