30 days to go: Johannes-Haupt confident Bok Women can put on good show in hometown against Black Ferns

Laurian Johannes-Haupt feels when she faced up to the mighty Black Ferns haka at the Women’s Rugby World Cup back in 2010, the women’s game was virtually unrecognisable from the high-impact professional sport it has now transformed into.

The Springbok Women’s assistant coach is the embodiment of the change within the game after the 40-year-old swapped her classroom at Athlone High School in Cape Town for a Bok tracksuit on a fulltime basis at the beginning of the year.

Johannes-Haupt can now focus all her energies on preparing the Boks for their all-important clash against the Black Ferns XI in her hometown when the traditional rivals meet at the historic Athlone Stadium on Saturday.

“We played them in the 2010 World Cup and from where the game has gone to, there's been massive, massive improvements,” Johannes-Haupt said, on the sidelines of the Boks training at UCT on Monday.

“The game has evolved so much. The Black Ferns come with a special skill set. Their skill set is really unmatched. They play from all over the park. 

They have a good set piece as well. We're in for quite a good game and I think we're going to give them a good show.”

The Black Ferns are six-times world champions and will be one of the favourites to raise the trophy a seventh time when the Women’s Rugby World Cup gets underway in exactly 30 days in England next month.

The Kiwis have therefore sent a second-string squad to face the 12th ranked Boks. 

Johannes-Haupt feels this is no less a challenge with plenty of the Black Ferns squad in Cape Town boasting Test-match experience.

“It's not the regular players, but there are quite a few capped Black Ferns in their team, as well as a few Sevens players of the Black Ferns,” she said.

“We're preparing for a proper physical encounter because we've watched their previous games, we know what to expect and we're just going to do what we need to do for the game to be successful.”

The Bok Women have been preparing steadily themselves for WRWC25 with two hard-fought Test matches against No 2 ranked Canada leading up to the clashes with the Black Ferns.

The home team showed significant improvement in the second Test, especially at the breakdown where they stalled the momentum of the Canadians. 

“We definitely want to get better at the breakdown. The first game against Canada, we weren't that good at the breakdown,” Johannes-Haupt said.

“Second one, we came out sharper and now we just want to carry on with that trend going into the Black Ferns game. 

“Our transitional play could also be better and that's what we're going in for. We want to transition better and want to play a more attacking brand of and finishing it.

“We definitely want to give it our best showing and want to take our good positives going into the World Cup because it's all part of the prep for the ultimate goal, the World Cup.”

The Boks’ chances have been boosted with the return of influential lock Vainah Ubisi, who was nominated for SA Rugby Women’s Player of the Year last year, after her recovery from a serious knee injury. Johannes-Haupt feels Ubisi’s contagious positive spirit has also rubbed off on the rest of the squad.

“She (Ubisi) was beaming. Beaming with excitement just to be able to be back on the park,” she said.

“Firstly, she's been waiting a long time to get back and she's been doing well. It's good to see her back in form and there's still a road ahead of her, but she's good to go.

“It's always special to have our younger ones back. She's like 23 years old. She's built a lot of experience from the WXV to where she is now, so to transition her back into the game is just special and everybody just loves having everyone around, so it's good vibes all the way.”