Afrika sees lots of positives from Nairobi trip

The benefits of playing in a highly competitive tournament outweighs the disappointment of the results for the Springbok Women's Sevens ‘A’ side that returned from Nairobi, Kenya on Monday, according to team coach Cecil Afrika.

A sixth-place finish was not what was expected as they went there to win, Afrika said of the Rugby Africa Women's Sevens tournament, where Uganda won to qualify for HSBC SVNS 3.

“It was definitely a mixed bag of results,” said Afrika.

“The team performed within the range of anticipated outcomes if you consider that this was their first experience at such a level. The ladies gained real-time experience in the tournament, which allowed them to better understand demands of the game which is different to training where you can run it back if errors are made.”

Afrika said despite being a young squad, they showed a lot of character and fight, something the management wanted to see this past weekend: “There were big moments that we lost where the result went the other way. Those are hard lessons but more importantly, valuable lessons.”

The players were exposed to altitude, which is something they have never had to deal with before and overall, Afrika said the experience was positive.

“There was massive growth even though it’s not necessarily on the scoreboard,” he said.

“Some of the players really put up their hands for the wider training squad in the future and this was a perfect opportunity to recognise those players as we don’t get a lot of game time. The matches we lost were quite close and the games we won were quite comfortable. Overall, it was a positive weekend for us.”

Afrika added that the messages of support were much appreciated: “Thank you to all avid sevens enthusiasts, family and friends supporting us, always. That means a lot.”