‘Came a long way’: Cecil Afrika confident Blazeboks can shine

While the world of sevens rugby is shining on the Blitzboks following their back-to-back World Championship title in Bordeaux, it proved to not be the only success story to come out of the rainbow nation’s sevens program.

The Springbok Women’s side’s hopes of returning to the HSBC SVNS Series fell short after a disappointing finals campaign, the side finishing at the bottom of the table in Bordeaux, and the Women’s World Championship overall.

However, in the greater scheme of things, 2026 proved a massive breakout year for the women’s program in South Africa, and head coach Cecil Afrika believes the lessons learnt this year will prove fruitful in the long run.

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The Blazeboks started the year winning the SVNS 3 competition in Dubai, being promoted along with Argentina up to the SVNS 2 tournament.

Their subsequent success saw the side finish in third, becoming one of only two teams across both tournaments – the other being Argentina’s women’s side – to play in all three levels this year.

While the World Championship proved a bridge too far for SVNS Series qualification, especially as the side was hamstrung by five injuries from SVNS 2, it proved a big step forward in the grand scheme of things for Afrika.

“I am very proud of this group and how they grew into a squad that could compete and realise that they are not far off from where we need to be,” the head coach said.

“It can be done [promotion], but we just did not have enough depth and experience in the lead-up. We never really had a chance in Hong Kong due to the short time together after the injuries.

“But you could see the growth and progress for the last two tournaments, where we had a month to prepare.”

“We started really well against France [in Bordeaux] and had our moments to win that one, but as the weekend continued, we started to struggle to keep up, hence the defeats yesterday and today to Argentina and Brazil.

“We have time to plan and discuss the road ahead.”

Afrika’s sentiments were echoed by Blazebok’s captain Zintle Mpupha, who expects the team to be far better off for the experience as they head towards preparation for SVNS Series qualification next year.

“This sevens system requires hard work, from having to qualify for SVNS 3 and then SVNS 2 to where we were really competitive, especially in Spain,” Mpupha said.

“I am very proud of those efforts, we could not sustain it, which was a pity, as it was rather inexperience than lack of effort that cost us in the end.

“The team came a long way.”