Cecil Afrika: 'SVNS 2 was great and so competitive'

A fifth place finish in São Paulo was not what the Springbok Women’s Sevens wanted. But their task of HSBC SVNS World Championship qualification had already been achieved.

Their exploits in Montevideo just one week prior had made sure of that. As one of the four teams to have graduated from HSBC SVNS 2, Cecil Afrika’s team can return home from South Africa pleased.

On Day 2 of São Paulo the team only had eight players available for selection. Even so they made the most tackles at the tournament and had a 79 per cent tackle completion rate after three events.

“SVNS 2 was great and so competitive,” Afrika said. “We saw last night that the very last game of the third tournament determined the fourth qualifier to go to the World Champs, and that shows how close all the teams were.

“There is another step up now, but as we responded every time, I’m confident we’ll do so come the next three events.”

South Africa did not come out of São Paulo unscathed. Nadine Roos, Shannon-Leigh Windvogel, Liske Lategan and Simamkele Namba will all have injuries assessed in the weeks ahead of Hong Kong.

There were bright moments though as Afrika was impressed by the efforts of debutants Shanidiné Bezuidenhout and Maceala Samboya, as well as the return of Catha Jacobs to the team seven years after her last outing with the Springbok Women’s Sevens.

“Their growth was great to watch,” Afrika said. “All of them have work-ons for sure, but no one just snaps into becoming a Sevens player. It takes time, and you need to learn lessons along the way.

“Catha’s carries were something special, and we’ll work on her conditioning. Maceala is just raw talent, but she quickly got the hang of the defensive line-up and made some massive tackles, while Shanidiné had to step into Nadine’s shoes on day two, and did very well.

“Her basics around the scrum and throwing the ball into the line-out under massive pressure improved a lot, and she came of age against China, not only scoring the try that gave us the lead, but she also chased down a Chinese runner and tackled her when we were in a position to close out the game.”