Bok Women get back to business
The Springbok Women on Sunday got back to business following a day off to recover from their opening Women’s Rugby World Cup clash, with the team resuming full training in preparation for Tuesday’s match against hosts France.
The players enjoyed time off in Paris on Saturday, but switched their focus back to the task at hand on Sunday, with morning core and video sessions followed by an afternoon field training session.
“It was important for the players to rest both mentally and physically after the clash against Australia,” said Springbok Women’s assistant coach Renfred Dazel. “This certainly lifted the attitude among the players on Sunday morning because they were fresh and keen to begin their preparations for the France Test. It is always a challenge to balance match preparations and rest on a tour such as this where the matches are four days apart, but we believe that adequate player management is important to get the best out of the ladies on the field.”
Fortunately for the team there were no serious injury concerns following Friday’s match, while looseforward Lamla Momoti is still managing the knee injury that forced her to withdraw from the clash against Australia.
Looking at the clash against France Dazel expected a tough test, especially since the hosts recorded an encouraging 26-0 victory against Wales in their opening Rugby World Cup clash and after being crowned the Six Nations champions with a grand slam earlier this year. But he said there were several positives the Springbok Women could take from their clash against Australia into Tuesday’s match.
“France are undoubtedly one of the tournament favourites, especially with home ground advantage counting in their favour,” said Dazel. “But we believe that we showed enough positives against Australia to be taken seriously in our next match. Our set pieces were solid, we worked ourselves into a position to score tries on several occasions and we defended well at times, especially in the second half. If we can build on this against France by reducing our error rate and penalties conceded, while capitalising on our point-scoring chances, we could do well.”
Springbok Women’s head coach Lawrence Sephaka will announce his match 22 to face France on Monday. The match will be broadcast live on SuperSport 1 at 20:45.
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