SA Women’s Sevens have bad day in Amsterdam
The Springbok Women’s Sevens team had a bad day at the office on Friday, losing all three their pool B matches in the Amsterdam Sevens tournament, the fourth leg of the inaugural IRB Women Sevens World Series.
The South Africans dropped close results to England (17-14) and France (12-14), suffered a big defeat against the powerful Canadians (36-7) and lost hooker Nosiphiwo Goda with a broken leg in that clash as well.
In the opening clash against England, the South Africans started strongly, with Phumeza Gadu using her pace to outsprint her opponents for the opening try. England came right back into the match when poor defence by SA at the kick-off resulted in a try to the team in white.
The rest of the half remained scoreless, with both teams guilty of not converting scoring opportunities.
England started the second half in great fashion, scoring from the kick-off and taking the lead in the process. Another great run by Gadu had her team up again, but England scored again with less than two minutes to play and held out for the win.
Against Canada, the SA team were in trouble from the start. Two tries in the first three minutes had them reeling and although Gadu pulled one back with her third try of the tournament, it was all Canada after that.
The match against the French was a nail-biter. Zenay Jordaan scored early after chasing her own kick, but France scored on the buzzer to equal things out. A French try two minutes from end seemed to seal the clash and a try by Natasha Hofmeester was too little too late.
National Women’s Sevens coach Denver Wannies, was not very pleased by the results, but realised that experience is costing his team.
“We allowed England and France back into the game. Both of them scored long distance tries when we were on their line and about to score ourselves. We played well at times and our structures were good, but we need to be better tomorrow when it comes to decision-making and finishing off our attacks.”
On Saturday, South Africa will play China in the semi-final of the Bowl and comparing results, could secure a win. The Chinese lost heavily in their three defeats and is yet to score a try.
The match is at 12h20 SA time.
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