Bok Women Sevens spot in elite World Championship a reward for continuous improvement

In a thrilling second-leg of the HSBC SVNS 2 series, the Springbok Women’s Sevens have qualified for the penultimate World Championship with one tournament still in hand.

Despite coming third at the Estadio Charrua in Montevideo, Uruguay, this past weekend (21, 22 March), the Springbok Women had done enough to secure one of four promotional spots.

The belligerent Boks proved too strong for SVNS 3 when they won the series with a clean sweep, claiming a spot in SVNS 2 where they have further dominated.

Over the past few months the women’s sevens squad have climbed their way to a second-place spot on the log with 34 points, just six behind Argentina.

This past weekend, the South Americans caught the South Africans sleeping and hammered them 22-10.

Despite a hard-fought comeback, they also lost 15-14 to Spain in their opening game of the weekend.

Head coach Cecil Afrika said he was pleased with the outcomes of the weekend, apart from “14 minutes of poor rugby”.

“We had two poor halves basically,” he said. “We started poorly against Spain in the first match on Saturday and finished poorly against Argentina in the last match on Sunday, but in between we really did well.”

To give the Women’s Sevens side some credit, this is only their first loss against Argentina after three games played.

In addition, their suffocating defensive structure paired with their blitsvinnig (lightning-fast) backline has seen the Boks winning 12 out of 15 games across Dubai (SVNS 3), Nairobi and Montevideo.

That is an 80% win rate.

And the wins have been convincing. Just in Montevideo, the Bok Women secured dominant shutouts against their other opponents, beating China 38-0, Brazil 26-0 and Kenya 27-0.

“[The games against Argentina and Spain] were bad patches of rugby, but I have to look at the rest of the tournament as well and we really played excellent rugby against China, Brazil and Kenya,” said Afrika.

“Especially our defensive effort was massive and that did put teams under huge pressure. I cannot fault the effort from the ladies, who really gave everything they had.”

A force to be reckoned with

Alongside skipper Nadine Roos, who recently won SA Rugby Women’s Player of the Year and Women’s Sevens Player of the Year, many players have stood out, including Ayanda Malinga, Byrhandré Dolf and newbie Patience Mokone.

Arguably, one of the most prominent and consistent performers in the series so far is speedster Maria Tshiremba.

Her ability to win turnovers and, with support from her teammates, turn defence into attack has exposed space and punished opposition gaps several times.

In their game against Kenya on Sunday, Tshiremba scored the opening try from a scrum. The ball was shifted to the winger who scored in the corner after a one-on-one tussle.

Then, in the last game of the weekend, against Argentina, Tshiremba scored from a wayward clearance kick by the opposition which fell perfectly into her path, giving the Springbok Women a 10-7 lead at half-time.

So far, Tshiremba has scored 15 tries in the three qualifying events before the Brazil finale, according to the HSBC SVNS website.

This means on average she has scored a try in every game thus far.

“I am getting more confident the more tries I have scored. I am trusting my ability to beat opponents and how to use my speed effectively,” she said. “But I still need my teammates to create the gaps for me to run into them, so every try is also a testimony of their hard work.”

The penultimate championship

In 2025, World Rugby announced a revamped sevens circuit that was “designed to deliver long-term financial sustainability and grow the global reach of rugby sevens in the lead-up to the LA 2028 Olympics”.

The new structure expands the series from 10 tournaments to 13, with three divisions that culminate in a three-event World Championship.

For the Blitzboks, the recent SVNS 1 series winners, qualification was automatic. The Springbok Women’s Sevens team, however, faced a far tougher route, progressing from the third division into SVNS 2, where they had to finish in the top four of six teams to secure a place in the 12-team championship – which they have.

The championship will see everyone starting fresh, with no points carried over. Across the three tournaments, teams earn log points – 20 for first, 18 for second, 16 for third and so on – with the cumulative total determining the world champions.

The championship is in Hong Kong from 17 to 19 April. Hong Kong is a historic hub of sevens rugby where the South African men have never won.

The series then moves to Valladolid, Spain (29 to 31 May) and Bordeaux, France (5 to 7 June), both first-time hosts on the circuit.

While each stop crowns its own tournament winner, only one team will emerge as the world champion.

Beyond the title, stakes are high as teams are also battling to secure top-eight status and avoid relegation for the following season.

Being series winners, the Blitzboks are guaranteed safety from relegation and top seeding at every championship event. However, with no historical success in Hong Kong, the opening leg presents a tough challenge to look forward to and could set the tone for the rest of the SVNS season.

For the Springbok Women side, their work is not done, said Tshiremba, since they still have one more tournament to go in the second division at São Paulo in Brazil from 28 to 29 March

“It is our aim to finish SVNS 2 on the strongest possible terms. A win will not only be reward for our hard work, but will also improve our confidence going to Hong Kong,” she said. DM

Springbok Women’s Sevens fixtures:

Saturday, 28 March (local time)

4.06pm: Spain

7.18pm: Kenya

10.49pm: Brazil

Sunday, 29 March (local time)

5.28pm: Argentina

8.18pm: China