Springbok Women shut out Spain 20-0 to seal European tour with back-to-back wins

South Africa’s Springbok Women wrapped up their European tour with a 20-0 shutout of Spain in Seville on Sunday, claiming their second win of the trip in a WXV Global Series crossover fixture against Las Leonas, who had finished third in the 2026 WXV Global Series Challenger.

Catha Jacobs opened the scoring after 14 minutes, finishing off a sensational scrum move, before Jakkie Cilliers converted and added a penalty in the 30th minute to give South Africa a 10-0 half-time lead. Cilliers and Aseza Hele both crossed for tries in the second half to seal the comfortable victory.

The win was not without concern, however. Captain Babalwa Latsha departed with an ankle injury, and her replacement, Nombuyekezo Mdliki, was later stretchered off — two setbacks that will be monitored ahead of upcoming home fixtures.

“We wanted to disrupt their attack to make sure they couldn’t get going, and the fact that they could not score tells you how successful that was,” said South Africa co-head coach Franzel September. “We managed to kill their attack at source. Another highlight for us was our discipline — we neither conceded any cards nor executed any high tackles. One of our aims is to be the best-disciplined side at the next World Cup, and we set a good standard towards that today.”

Despite the emphatic result, September acknowledged that the Springboks left tries on the field and that there is still work to be done. South Africa had begun the WXV Global Series with a 50-19 loss to Wales in Cardiff before winning their final two matches of the tour.

“We did leave some tries out there, but to finish the tour with such a commanding win was great for us,” September added. “We can now look back on the gains from the tour and, once we come back to South Africa, start focusing on the two matches against Ireland in Cape Town later this month.”

Ireland, South Africa’s next opponents, arrive in Cape Town having experienced a mixed WXV Global Series campaign of their own. Scott Bemand’s side lost 40-36 to the USA Women’s Eagles in Dublin before back-to-back wins over Japan, the most recent of which came in an out-of-window fixture in Cork.