SA Women Sevens to benefit from Dutch experience

May 19 • General News, Sevens Rugby • 1992 Views • Comments Off on SA Women Sevens to benefit from Dutch experience

A convincing win over fellow Rugby World Cup Sevens pool B contenders China has lifted the spirits of the South African Women Sevens team at the Amsterdam Sevens tournament in the Netherlands.

The South African side dropped two close results against England and France on day one of the tournament and lost hooker Nosiphiwo Goda with a broken leg in defeat to Canada, but started day two very well.

They managed to beat China, who along with Ireland and Australia competes in the same pool as South Africa in the upcoming Rugby World Cup Sevens in Moscow next month, a result that pleased national sevens coach Denver Wannies.

“We came here to learn, gain experience and grow as a team. I also wanted to have a decent look at our opponents in Moscow and the fact that we could actually play and beat China was a huge bonus. This will help us in our preparations for Moscow,” Wannies said.

The South African effort in the last leg of the inaugural Women Sevens World Series saw them finished in eighth place on 27 points, one spot below hosts, the Netherlands, who beat South Africa in the final of the Bowl competition.

There were four tournaments in the series and with South African only playing in three, they did very well as Russia was the only other team also involved in only three tournaments that finished ahead of them on the log.

Speedster Phumeza Gadu finished high up amongst the try scorers in the Dutch capital with three tries and was well supported by Zenay Jordaan, who scored in two matches.

The team’s top scorer status belonged to Yolanda Meiring however, who scored 17 points in the tournament.