Roos: We are ready to for the South American challenge

The HSBC SVNS 2 Series swings back into action this weekend in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo for the first of two crucial back-to-back weekends in South America to decide which sides will head to the HSBC SVNS World Championship Series.

Following their heroics in February’s opening round of the HSBC SVNS 2 Series in Nairobi, Argentina’s women and Germany’s men lead the way in the race to qualify for the competitions in Hong Kong, Valladolid and Bordeaux in April, May and June.

The two winners head to the second high-intensity HSBC SVNS 2 tournament in Uruguay with 20 league points under their belts courtesy of their victories in Kenya - and five other sides on either side of the competition determined to close the gap before the final round in São Paulo, Brazil, which kicks off in a week’s time.

Speaking at the traditional captains’ photo ahead of this weekend’s competition at the iconic 19th-century Teatro Solís in the heart of Ciudad Vieja, Uruguay captain, Diego Ardao said: “The first thing we want to do here is to get some better results than in Kenya. We must improve our defence and our attacking. It’s a great opportunity for us in front of our families, friends including those from our clubs. We will take advantage of this opportunity.”

Spain women's captain, Olivia Fresneda, who was also taking part in the celebrations, commented on being in Montevideo ahead of the weekend's fixtures: “I’m very excited and we are training a lot this week in preparation. We have high expectations. We have a great team and we hope to win the tournament!”

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 standings.

But lower-ranked men’s sides Belgium and Canada and women’s teams Kenya and Brazil know that a strong performance this weekend will put them firmly back into the mix for an all-important top-four finish.

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.

The Springbok Women’s Sevens are ready for their five clashes at Estadio Charrua in Montevideo this weekend and according to Nadine Roos, they are determined to get the job done of qualifying for the HSBC SVNS World Championship sooner rather than later.

Roos will captain the team in Uruguay where they will face Spain, China and Brazil on day one of the tournament on Saturday, with matches against Kenya and Argentina to follow on Sunday in a format where all teams play each other once and log points determine the winner.

South Africa placed second in the opening tournament in Kenya last month, which put them in a strong position to be one of the four teams to qualify for the World Championships. A similar performance will set them up well with one more tournament left in Brazil next weekend.

“Without getting ahead of ourselves, the goal is to walk away winners from this tournament,” Roos said from Uruguay.

“We take nothing for granted from the Kenya tournament, only the log points. We edged Spain, lost to Brazil and it was only against China that we could really get a big win. So we start all over again with our mindset that of expecting the unexpected.

“Spain will feel they were close enough to overturn the result, Brazil have the confidence of beating us and China will be looking for revenge. So we are well aware that all of them will be coming for us.”

The focus on day one will be about starting strong, said Roos: “The first challenge is Spain and we are just looking at that match and what will be required for the win. Once we crossed that hurdle, we can look at the next challenge.”

According to Roos, who was recently named SA Rugby Women’s Player of the Year, the South Africans worked hard at their Stellenbosch base to be ready for this weekend.

“Our work-ons was in transitioning from defence to attack, we were not at our best in that aspect in Kenya,” she said. “Also, defence is an attitude and ours will be not to miss any tackles and put in significant hits.”

The team had a delayed departure to South America but Roos said they took it in in their stride: “We adapted our training schedule, the team doctor adjusted our sleeping schedule and we accepted that the delay was out of our hands. So we arrived in a good space, had a good training session and will be ready on Saturday.”

Due to the delayed flight, the squad could watch the Blitzboks’ victory over Fiji in the final of the HSBC SVNS New York, and the performance by their “Stellenbosch brothers” was inspiring, Roos said.

“The Blitzboks really inspired us – we watched the final and that was special,” she said.

“The way they stayed in the fight in that last minute to keep Fiji out was true to the core of our sevens system and we want to do the same when in a similiar situation.

“That was a good case study of how the system will look after you if you stick to it and trust it. We want to do the same this weekend. It was a case of the winner takes it all and they had the will power to outlast Fiji.”

The weekend will be special for Maceala Samboya and Shanidiné Bezuidenhout, who are in line to make their debuts for the Springbok Women’s Sevens.

Bok Women’s Sevens fixtures (SA times)

Saturday

4.23pm v Spain

6.46pm v China

9.36pm v Brazil

Sunday

7.23pm v Kenya

10.39pm v Argentina

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 (uncapped)

#20 Catha Jacobs

#23 Ayanda Malinga

#26 Lerato Makua

#27 Maceala Samboya (uncapped)

#28 Shannon-Lee Windvogel