Springbok Women target forward dominance and rankings climb against USA Eagles at Ellis Park

South Africa’s Springbok Women open a two-Test home series against the USA Eagles at Ellis Park on Saturday, with coach Swys de Bruin’s side targeting a forward-driven performance and a further climb up the World Rugby rankings.

The fixture carries extra weight given the history between the sides: the USA have won five of their six previous meetings, making Saturday’s match the sternest immediate test of how far South Africa have progressed. It is also the Springbok Women’s first home Test since their Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 campaign, in which they reached the quarter-finals for the first time — a run that lifted them to 10th in the global rankings, an all-time high.

Assistant coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt said the squad’s preparation had been deliberately intense, with the Eagles already having faced Australia, Canada and New Zealand’s Black Ferns earlier in 2026. “Scrums, set-piece defence, wide ruck defence — you name it, we focussed on it and it was a very productive session,” she said. “Those boxes were ticked for us and with one session remaining on Thursday, we are about as ready as we can be.”

The ambition extends well beyond this weekend. Johannes-Haupt was clear that the World Cup quarter-final finish, impressive as it was, is now the floor rather than the ceiling. “We did achieve the best result ever for our squad at last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup, so the challenge now is to keep improving, lifting the bar higher and higher, and to move up the world rankings,” she said. “We want to be able to play and compete against any team in the world come the next World Cup.”

Hooker Micke Gunter echoed that drive. “We left the jersey in a very special place after the World Cup, but now we need to take it another step, to level up and take that jersey to an even better place,” she said. “Fans can expect a great fight from this team, but also a drive to become better than we have ever been.”

South Africa have five further Tests scheduled before the year is out. In early September they face New Zealand’s Black Ferns at Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium as part of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, before WXV Global Series away fixtures against Wales and Italy, and then back-to-back home matches against Ireland in Cape Town. The two-Test series against the Eagles, then, is the opening chapter of what the Springbok Women hope will be a transformative year.