After two days of intense, high-action rivalry, Portugal's men's team and Kenya women's took top honours at the second round of the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 in Cape Town.
The top eight men's teams to go to the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger third round in Krakow are Germany, Canada, Portugal, Chile, Samoa, Japan, Madagascar, and Tonga.
On International Women's Day, there was joy for Kenya, South Africa, Argentina, Colombia, Thailand, Czechia, Poland and Uganda, who marked the occasion by securing their places in the third Challenger round on 11-12 April in Poland.
Germany won the first men's semi-final 24-12 over Canada, and Portugal reached the final thanks to a 36-14 win over Japan. Portugal dominated the men's competition, claiming a spot in the final with a 12-7 victory over Germany.
South African women beat Czechia 21-15 in the first semi-final, while Kenya was victorious over Colombia with 12-5. For a second consecutive tournament, Kenya lifted gold beating South Africa 17-0 in an all-African women's final. South Africa ended in second place - Canada men's and Colombia women's beat Japan and Czechia to third place.
Losing against Kenya in the final of the second World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger tournament in Cape Town on Saturday evening was a massive disappointment but Springbok Women's Sevens coach Renfred Dazel said they are still on track for their 2025 ambition – to qualify for next season’s HSBC SVNS.
The Bok Women Sevens won both their pool games on Friday and had to work hard for victory in the semi-final against Czechia on Saturday, before going down to Kenya in the final.
South Africa are second on the log with one tournament, in Krakow, to go. According to Dazel, they are determined to qualify for the HSBC SVNS play-offs in Los Angeles in May, where the top four Challenger sides will face the bottom-placed four teams in the world series.
“It was a poor performance in the final and to against lose to Kenya, was disappointing,” said Dazel.
“We did not play well at all; we made at least six handling errors and all of those were in attacking positions.
“To add to that, we had four yellow cards in the semi-final against Czechia and lost Zintle Mpupha to suspension. So it was not our best day but the fact that we improved our standing despite that, is a positive.”
For Dazel, the performances of the last two weekends were fruitful as he blooded two new players at this level and a few less experienced squad members got valuable game time.
“Those are all wins for me and the group will benefit from that,” he said.
“We are losing four senior players who will join the Springbok Women training camp and will not be available for the trip to Poland but we will also welcome Simamkele Namba back from injury, as well as Kyla de Vries, who was very close to selection for this week.”
Kenya (40 points), South Africa (34), Argentina (30) and Colombia (30) are the front runners after the two tournaments hosted in South Africa, while Nadine Roos topped the points scoring list after the two tournaments with 74 points.
The final was a huge disappointment for the crowd who showed up. The Bok Women, who lost Mpupha due to suspension for a high tackle in the semi-final, failed to fire a shot, with numerous handling errors the order of the day.
No less than six handling errors occurred when the final pass was delivered, with both wingers, Maria Tshiremba and Ayanda Malinga, not on song.
Kenya, on the other hand, remained patient with ball in hand and pounced when it mattered. They scored tries on either side of the break and nailed the coffin shut with a converted try with just under two minutes to play.
To compound matters for the home side, they lost Kayla Swarts with injury near the end of the match.
Earlier on Saturday, the Bok Women's Sevens had to dig deep but ultimately did enough to book their spot in the final with a tight victory over Czechia in the first semi-final.
The South Africans had to worst possible start, conceding two yellow cards - to Leigh Fortuin and Mathrin Simmers - in the opening exchanges, which allowed the Czechs to take a 10-0 lead with two unconverted tries.
Once they were back to seven players, the Bok Women hit their straps, with Maria Tshiremba scoring twice late in the first half, with Nadine Roos adding the extras to give South Africa a 14-10 lead at the break.
Roos scored shortly after the break with a great run up the middle of the field, adding the conversion to make it 21-10.
However, more disciplinary issues followed when Kemisetso Baloyi and Zintle Mpupha were also yellow carded in quick succession, leaving South Africa playing with only five players for a second time in the match.
Czechia used this numerical advantage well and scored their third try, again unconverted, to make it 21-15 and leave the local fans on the edge of their seats.
South Africa did very well to play out the match and when their sin-binned players returned, they ran the clock down for a tight win to secure their place in the final.
Scores
Semi-final: South Africa 21 (14), Czechia 15 (10)
SA - Tries: Maria Tshiremba (2), Nadine Roos. Conversions: Nadine Roos (3).
Czechia - Tries: Veronika Bolfová, Julie Doležilová, Tereza Bathová.
Final: South Africa 0, Kenya 17 (10)
Kenya - Tries: Freshia Oduor, Sharon Auma, Naomi Amuguni. Conversion: Sinaida Nyachio.
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