Springbok Women start to gel with ever-improving performances against top sides

The Springbok Women lost 33-5 to Canada — the second-best side in the world — on Saturday, but this doesn’t paint the full picture of the side’s growth.

The score sat at 19-5 in Canada’s favour with 10 minutes to go in the contest in Gqeberha, with South Africa firmly on the front foot. But just as they had struggled throughout the match, the Bok Women failed to turn their momentum into points.

Outside of a well-finished try in the left-corner at the start of the second half by Ayanda Malinga, the Springbok Women failed to put any points on the board despite dominating spells of territory and possession.

Canada, a far more polished and experienced side, in contrast, took every opportunity the South African errors handed to them as well as creating their own through well-worked set moves and cohesive play that stems from years of playing together.

From the Springboks’ perspective, despite letting it slip in the final 10 minutes in Gqeberha, it’s still an improved showing from their 50-20 loss to the same opposition a week prior at Loftus Versfeld.

“The score flatters them, as far as we’re concerned. We had our chances,” Bok Women head coach Swys de Bruin said after the match. “We just couldn’t finish.”

Starting to gel

There was a moment in the first half, with Canada leading 7-0, when South Africa were perched on Canada’s five-metre line while they were playing with 13 — after successive yellow cards to the Canadians — but still couldn’t punch through the defensive line.

Lineout mauls, phase play between forwards, getting it out the back to the backline, nothing worked.

“Sport is a funny game of fine lines,” De Bruin said. “We now have the knife in, we just need to turn it, we’ll be amazed.

“They don’t realise how good they are. My big thing is not a coaching thing at this stage, it’s a mental thing. When the penny drops and they realise how good they are, they’ll be amazed.”

The Bok Women’s backline have been stuttering for a while, particularly in comparison to their forward pack — who provide forward momentum regardless of who the opposition is.

De Bruin made positional changes last week to help the fluidity. Nadine Roos started at scrumhalf for the first time in her international career, having had a stint at the position for about 20 minutes last week.

She was paired with Eloise Webb, who played flyhalf at 15s for the first time, having occupied a similar role in 15s in the past, although she operates primarily as a fullback, while Libbie Janse van Rensburg slotted in at inside centre.

The backline didn’t fire, which was largely expected given the individuals’ greenness to the positions, but it did allow their X-factor player, Roos, more time on the ball and to attack the fringes against bigger, slower forwards.

“She’s a special player. It doesn’t matter where you play her, she’s good,” De Bruin commented on Roos.

Byrhandrѐ Dolf, starting at fullback, also had jet shoes and counterattacked well whenever Canada kicked deep. De Bruin, having tinkered with the positional makeup of the backline since being appointed last year, might have stumbled across the best one that gets the most out of all the individual players, but they need time to gel to ensure chemistry of a similar standard displayed by Canada.

Long way to go

The Springbok Women were 14-0 down at halftime and came out firing in the second, exactly as they did a week prior, and while De Bruin and his staff would have been upset about not splitting the deficit more when they had the upper hand, they are aware that they are up against one of the best teams in the world, whereas the Bok Women are still in the process of reaching their potential.

“You can’t hide the fact that they’re number two in the world, they’re a top side,” De Bruin said. “We’re realistic. We’re not going to measure ourselves just against them, we know where the bar is, but we had our own goals: How many linebreaks, how many carries, how scrum success etc. We are very process driven.

“If we can tweak a few things, in the next year or two we can beat number two. If you put too much emphasis on the final result and winning, you’re not going to get there. It takes the focus away from the process.”

De Bruin is aware enough to acknowledge that catching up with Canada is a few years away and that next month’s Rugby World Cup might be too soon to dream of both the men’s and women’s side holding the trophy at the same time.

Instead, it’s about measuring up to the best in the world and closing the gap each time.

“The score mustn’t confuse what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s early days and the World Cup is coming so we couldn’t ask for a better Test — playing the number two in the world, Canada.

“It’s the building blocks for the World Cup, the scoreline isn’t everything.” DM