Springbok Women taking lessons to heart despite expensive school fees

The Springbok Women’s team would have taken a lot of lessons from the defeats they suffered in the two-Test series against Canada.

School fees for those lessons were quite expensive, as the South Africans suffered 50-20 and 33-5 hammerings at the hands of the second-ranked Canadians in Pretoria and Gqeberha respectively. But it was the best eye opener ahead of next month’s Women’s Rugby World Cup in England.

Now, ahead of two matches against New Zealand’s Black Ferns XV in Cape Town, it’s time to learn from the mistakes and implement the lessons learned.

The Bok Women have come a long way over the last 18 months, but the gap between themselves and the top rugby nations is still wide. They are ranked 12th in the world, and are 20 ranking points behind New Zealand, who are currently ranked third in the world. Top-ranked England are 29 points ahead of the Bok Women.

The positive aspect is that the Bok Women are aware of their shortcomings and have embraced the lessons learned. The focus now is to improve with each passing game, and use it every minute to get better and to give themselves a chance to be competitive at the global showpiece event.

Forward Babalwa Latsha, who will lead South Africa on Saturday against the New Zealanders at Athlone Stadium (5pm kickoff), says they want to sharpen their arsenal for next month’s Rugby World Cup. The experienced prop said they will be keen for more improvements around the breakdown and set piece.

“The Rugby World Cup is just 30 days away and we are using this opportunity to fine tune our game, as we will do again next weekend,” Latsha said.

“We worked hard on areas such as the breakdown in order to improve in that aspect of play and that will be a focus area for us tomorrow again.

“The two matches against Canada provided us with valuable learnings and the next two against this very capable Black Ferns XV will do so again.”

The Women Boks have been boosted by the return of star lock Vainah Ubisi, who makes a welcome return from injury to the green and gold, having last played for the Springbok Women in last year’s WXV 2 tournament at the same venue.

The Bulls Daisies' second-rowwer Ubisi is a dynamic player, with a massive presence at lineout time and a top ball-carrier. She will certainly add some much-needed grunt and skill to the Women Boks’ forward effort, especially at set-piece time.

Latsha said although their set piece worked well against Canada, they are looking for more improvement on Saturday.

“There is no doubt that the Black Ferns XV will test us, they are a very skilful team with a number of very experienced players in key positions, but to be honest, for us this match will be about ourselves and what we want to achieve,” Latsha added.

For Latsha, returning to Athlone Stadium is also a treat. In the last two seasons, the Bok Women played at the Cape Town venue in WXV 2.

“Yes, the stadium has now almost become a home base for us,” she said.

“I think it is fair to say that we have managed to build up a support base out there and I hope and believe that the crowds will come out again this weekend to come and support us. We would love nothing more to feed off the energy from the crowd, so I really hope they come in numbers.”