South Africa women stun GB to win first pool game on SVNS Series

It was a simple question, really, but one that had to be asked. “How proud are you” was the question thrown Nadine Roos’ way after South Africa’s history-making pool stage win on the SVNS Series.

Roos smiled. It almost answered the question before another word was spoken.

South Africa, who won World Rugby’s Challenger Series last year to gain promotion to the top tier of sevens, have shown plenty of promise, fight and determination during the season so far.

The Springbok Women came close to what would’ve been an incredible win over reigning world champions the Black Ferns Sevens in Dubai, and they’ve also impressed in other matches.

Risi Pouri-Lane after the Black Ferns win over USA | Perth SVNS

Risi Pouri-Lane after the Black Ferns win over USA | Perth SVNS

But wins have remained out of reach. Other than a win over Spain in Dubai’s ninth-place semi-final, South Africa had failed to register another result in their favour – until now.

Playing against giants layers Great Britain on a scorching Saturday morning on Australia’s west coast, South Africa held on for a stunning 14-12 victory.

The players celebrated as expected on the field, and they continued to enjoy the historic moment as they walked off the field and up the tunnel at HBF Park.

“It’s our second win, we had a win in Dubai, but it’s our first pool game win so it’s a massive one for us,” South Africa’s Nadine Roos told RugbyPass.

“The victory is really much needed for us as a team and that will give us confidence going forward in this tournament.

“This gives us confidence but still channel it the right way and not be overconfident for the next game,” she added when asked about what was said during the team huddle.

“It’s a good, positive one for us as we lacked a bit of yesterday, day one – that energy transferring from warmup into the game. Now finally we got that right.

“We want to see how we can go forward on that energy and thrive and live off that energy on the field.”

Great Britain would’ve been supremely confident after defeating hosts Australia on Friday afternoon – the SVNS Series leaders’ first loss of the 2023/24 campaign.

Jasmine Joyce opened the scoring against South Africa in the second minute, and the team traded tries to finish with two each.

But the difference was Nadine Roos.

Roos converted Simakele Namba and Maria Tshiremba’s tries, while one of Great Britain’s attempts was unsuccessful, to see the Springbok Women win by two points.

“We knew GB was probably going to be very confident after last night so we knew they’re going to come into this game very confident,” Roos said.

“We knew with this heat, this is Stellenbosch heat, we live for this heat.

“Just the fight we showed out there for each other, for the system, and that’s what it means for the system, that win also means so much to the system and it shows what we are capable of as a team and that we can be competitive against these teams on the World Series.”

It wasn’t their “first” pool stage win, and the players didn’t celebrate as they did after the victory over Great Britain, but South Africa doubled down with another good result against Spain.

Roos scored what ended up being the match-winner for South Africa in the 9th place semi-final.