Bok Women’s Sevens book their ticket to Hong Kong

The Springbok Women's Sevens qualified for the HSBC SVNS World Championship by finishing in second place of HSBC SVNS 2 in Montevideo on Sunday, confirming a top four finish in the overall series with a tournament left to play, in Brazil next weekend.

With the top four sides gaining entry into the three tournament World Championship, the Bok Women’s second placing in Uruguay, like they did in Kenya a month ago, means they will finish in the top four alongside Argentina, who defeated the South Africans by 22-10 at Estadio Charrua, with three second half tries swaying the match towards the South Americans.

South Africa scored from the kick-off, with Lerato Makua going over as the Argentineans could not control the ball, to give the Bok Women a 5-0 lead but Argentina responded immediately by scoring a long range converted try.

The lead was restored soon after though, as Maria Tshiremba raced away when a poor clearance kick by her opponents landed in her lap and she used her pace to score in the corner for a 10-7 half-time lead.

Argentina owned the second half though. They first scored down the blindside when the SA defence was caught napping and when a good tackle on Nadine Roos dislodged the ball and resulted in a breakaway try, the writing was on the wall.

It remained a win for SA coach Cecil Afrika, team captain Roos and their squad though as they did enough in the opening two events to secure the ticket to Hong Kong, Valladolid and Bordeaux in the next couple of months.

“We had two poor halves basically,” said Afrika.

“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.

“Those 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.”

The team will travel to the final HSBC SVNS 2 tournament in Sao Paulo this weekend knowing they did enough to qualify for the World Championships but Afrika said there are still a lot of work to do.

“We need to play matches at this level to get use to the intensity and quality as we are also in the process of building depth in our squad,” he said.

“We gave Shanidinè Bezuidenhout the opportunity to debut in this tournament and she did well, while someone like Lerato Makua, who has not played that many tournaments before, really stood out with her effort. She has now matured into a very good international sevens player and that came from being exposed to this level of rugby.”

The team management will have a look at any walking wounded once in Brazil but Afrika expects a clean bill of health from all his players: “There were no injuries at the end of the tournament but as it is a back-to-back weekend for everyone, we need to manage that as well.”

Earlier on Sunday, the showdown against continental foes Kenya turned into a convincing win for the Bok Women’s Sevens, outscoring their East African opponents by five tries to nil for a 27-0 victory – their third straight clean sheet in Uruguay.

The tries all came in fine fashion, with both Byrhandré Dolf and Patience Mokone scoring braces, with the opening try from Tshiremba another stunning piece of work. From a scrum, the ball was transferred to the flyer, who finished brilliantly in the corner to add to her tally of remarkable tries.

That opened the scoring, before Dolf dotted down just before the break when South Africa attacked the blind side from a scrum, catching the Kenyans napping.

A good defensive set by the Bok Women throttled the Kenyans, who just could not get enough possession in scoring areas of the field and that continued in the second half.

Dolf also scored the first try of the second half before two tries in two minutes by Mokone confirmed the pecking order on the African continent. On both occasions, Mokone had to shrug off would be tacklers to dot down.

Spain, too, have one hand gripping a pass to the HSBC SVNS World Championship Series, after Maria Calvo scored a try in each half, and Ana Cortes added a third in a breathless 19-12 win over China. Earlier, China had been by far the faster out of the blocks in the opening match on day two against Brazil. Qian Xin scored an unanswered first-half triple, and Le Zhang added another in the second, as they withstood a second-half comeback to win 22-15. Tries at either end of the match for Bianca Silva gave Brazil a much-needed confidence-boost heading into next weekend’s final HSBC SVNS 2 tournament in Sao Paulo, as they beat Kenya 19-12 to keep their World Championship hopes alive.

In the men’s competition, Germany and USA booked their tickets to the season-ending HSBC SVNS World Championship Series, with commanding performances over two days in Montevideo. The top two sides in Nairobi last month swapped final places, as USA bagged the title in Uruguay with a perfect five wins from five matches at Estadio Charrua.

Kenya and Uruguay, meanwhile, are well-placed in the third and fourth qualifying positions heading into Sao Paulo, but they will have one eye on Belgium and Canada when the teams take to the pitch next weekend

USA were made to work to maintain their unbeaten run in Montevideo against a winless Belgian side they had beaten 40-0 in Nairobi. But two tries for player of the tournament Will Chevalier and a late score for Steve Tomasin handed them a 17-5 win that means they are early qualifiers for the HSBC SVNS World Championship Series.

A second double of day two for Will Chevalier, and a first SVNS try for Tucker Trickey confirmed USA’s superiority in South America as they beat fellow World Championship qualifiers Germany 29-5. Surprise winners in Nairobi, Germany had earlier recorded their fourth straight win in Montevideo, a disciplined 12-7 victory over a game Kenya.

Pedro Hoblog scored two as hosts Uruguay gave the home crowd basking in the Sunday sun plenty to cheer about with a five-try 33-0 win over Canada, who have yet to win a match in the HSBC SVNS 2 Series.

An efficient Kenya led by hat-trick hero Patrick Odongo Okong’o - beat Uruguay 22-14 in a match featuring three yellow cards, but even that result could not silence the party atmosphere in the crowd on the final match of the tournament.

Earlier, Morgan Di Nardo scored three of Canada’s seven tries as they ended a run of nine straight HSBC SVNS 2 defeats with a 41-14 win over Belgium in the two sides’ last outing of the weekend.

Scores

South Africa 27 (10) Kenya 0

SA – Tries: Maria Tshiremba, Byrhandré Dolf (2), Patience Mokone (2). Conversion: Nadine Roos.

South Africa 10 (10) Argentina 22 (7)

SA – Tries: Lerato Makua, Maria Tshiremba.

Arg – Tries: María Paula Pedrozo, Talia Rodich, Candela Delgado, Marianela Escalante. Conversion: Sofia Gonzalez.

Springbok Women's Sevens squad for South America

#2 Asisipho Plaatjies

#3 Patience Mokone

#7 Maria Tshiremba

#9 Nadine Roos (captain)

#10 Byrhandré Dolf

#12 Liske Lategan

#14 Simamkele Namba

#16 Shiniqwa Lamprecht

#19 Shanidiné Bezuidenhout

#20 Catha Jacobs

#23 Ayanda Malinga

#26 Lerato Makua

#27 Maceala Samboya

#28 Shannon-Lee Windvogel