Bok Women's Sevens finish Nairobi trip on high note

SA Rugby
4 hours ago
6 min read

The Springbok Women's Sevens finished the opening tournament of HSBC SVNS 2, played in Nairobi in Kenya, in second place on the log, setting them up well for the final two tournaments to be played in South America next month.

South Africa won both their matches on Sunday, building good momentum for the final two legs, in Uruguay and Brazil, where the top four sides will have a chance to play in the top tier HSBC SVNS Rugby Championship.

A commanding 33-5 bonus-point win over China in opening match on the final day meant that the winner of the clash against Argentina later in the afternoon would determine the winner of the event, one of three to be played in the HSBV SVNS 2 series.

South Africa edged Argentina, who had won all four their previous matches, in sudden death to claim the bragging rights but the losing bonus point gained by the South Americans confirmed their status as top ranked side in the tournament, with South Africa second, one log point behind.

The South Americans finished the tournament with 13 log points, the Bok Women are second on 12, followed by Spain (11 points), China (6), Kenya (6) and Brazil, who beat South Africa yesterday, in sixth place with four points.

The match against Argentina was not only the last match for both teams but also the unofficial final of the tournament, as the two teams topped the log going into the match.

Argentina scored first for a 7-0 lead after a couple of weak tackles by the Bok Women but a great try by Maria Tshiremba, converted by Nadine Roos, levelled the scores immediately.

The South Americans kicked the ball deep from the restart, Tshiremba saw a gap and off she went to score, 97m downfield at the other side of the pitch. Roos converted to make it 7-7, which turned out to be the half-time score as well.

The second half was a bit of a mixed bag for South Africa, who created numerous opportunities but handling errors robbed them from converting those into points.

Instead, it was Argentina who scored to take the lead again and it took a mighty effort by the South Africans to even scores up in the final play of the match, when Patience Mokone dotted down to level the scores but unfortunately Roos pulled the potential match-winning conversion.

With scores tied, extra-time was called and in the final minute of that five-minute half, Tshiremba again raced away to score the winner.

In the earlier match against China, the South Africans’ attack was just too slick and their defence too dominant for their opponents. They scored five unanswered tries before the Chinese got a late consolation try.

Tshiremba was too quick for the defence after three minutes to dot down and that was followed by Ayanda Malinga two minutes later.

Shannon-Lee Windvogel scored her first try in her first tournament just before the break, handing the Bok Women a 21-0 lead at the break.

Windvogel added a second just after the restart and Mokone also finished a good attack before the last Chinese try.

On a day of surprises in Nairobi, Argentina and Germany bagged HSBC SVNS 2 gold at the Nyayo National Stadium to take an early lead in the three-tournament race to the HSBC SVNS World Championship series.

The two sides head to next month’s back-to-back tournaments in Montevideo and Sao Paulo with 20 league points under their belts courtesy of their victories.

The leading four men’s and women’s sides after the three HSBC SVNS 2 competitions will head into the elite tri-tournament World Championship series in May and June.

Behind Argentina, South Africa, Spain and China make up the top four in the women’s competition after the opening round; while USA, Kenya and Uruguay are chasing Germany hard in the race for the top four in the men’s rankings.

In the women’s competition, promoted HSBC SVNS 3 champions Argentina claimed the inaugural HSBC SVNS 2 tournament title, despite losing their final match in Nairobi to South Africa in dramatic fashion.

Finishing top of the table in Nairobi means Las Yaguaretés - led by player of the tournament Sofia Gonzalez - will take 20 league points into back-to-back second and third legs of the HSBC SVNS 2 tri-tournament series in Montevideo and Sao Paulo in March.

Women’s Player of the Tournament Sofia Gonzalez said the title was the result of years of work on the Argentina women’s programme: “We’ve had a really long time to get ready for this (tournament).

“We’ve been training for three years with our new staff and everyone has put in a lot of work, physically and mentally.

“We’ve been doing a lot of hard work, so we’re really happy with the outcome. (This is) not a coincidence - it’s because of everything that we've been doing.

“So now, we’ll go back home and take some time off to recover, because it’s been a really hard weekend - even though we've had a lot of fun and it’s been great rugby, it’s also been really hard on our bodies.

“So taking the time to recover well and then, in terms of Montevideo, we will obviously look back on our games. Even if we placed first, we still have a lot to work on and try to cut out our mistakes. We’ll focus on that and hopefully we will have the same outcome in Montevideo. We will for sure be going for that first place again.”

Surprise Nairobi champions Germany took an early lead in the HSBC SVNS 2 league, claiming the title in Nairobi with a perfect day two run, while day one leaders Kenya and USA both slipped up at Nyayo National Stadium.

Germany kicked off their day with a shock win over USA and doubled down with a hard-fought victory over Belgium, to take the dressing room lead with just Kenya capable of overtaking them in the final match of the day.

But the host nation found themselves up against a tactically perfect USA, who froze them out for most of the two sides’ meeting, which had been eagerly awaited after the two sides had gone unbeaten on day one.

Germany had roared out of the blocks in their opening match on day two to shock USA, who had gone unbeaten on day one, scoring four unanswered tries - two of them for Felix Hufnagel - to claim an astounding 28-7 win.

More impressive than the tries, however, was their defensive determination, as they kept USA in their own half for almost the entire game before Jack Wendling got a consolation score with the clock in the red.

Tim Lichtenburg’s try-saving tackle then saved Germany at the end of an epic match against Belgium shortly after Jakob Dipper had scored to send them into a 12-7 lead, to take them into a surprise lead. Later results meant that it was one they would not lose.

Kenya had made the most of USA’s shock defeat against Germany to remain the only unbeaten side in the men’s competition with one match to go, beating Uruguay 17-5, courtesy of tries from Chrisant Ojwang, George Ooro Angeyo, and Samuel Mosiori Asati.

But after their surprise defeat to Germany, USA spoiled Kenya’s party with a tactical masterclass in the final match of the day. Lucas Lacamp, the leading points scorer in Nairobi got the scoreboard moving for the Eagles Sevens, with Aaron Cummings and Adam Channel following up before Ooro Angeyo - the men’s player of the tournament - got the crowd on their feet with an 85m consolation.

Uruguay finished their Nairobi weekend on a high, with a comprehensive 41-12 win over promoted HSBC 3 winners Canada to wrap up fourth place and take a big confidence boost to their home tournament in Montevideo next month.

Nico Bulte scored in the last minute as Belgium won a tight and hard-fought battle of Saturday’s winless sides, avenging their defeat in the HSBC SVNS 3 final with a 10-7 victory over Canada.