Springbok Women get down to business in London
The Springbok Women arrived in London on Thursday for their Rugby World Cup warm-up tour and immediately got down to business for Saturday’s clash against the Nomads. The tour has been made possible by a R2,3m grant by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.
The Springbok Women will play two matches against the Nomads on Saturday and next Tuesdayrespectively at the Lensbury Club in Teddington, before closing off the tour with a clash against IRB Women’s Rugby World Cup hosts and pool contenders, France, in Marcoussis on July 4.
The team will return to France on July 27 for the World Cup, which will be hosted from August 1 to 17.
The team touched down in London shortly after 07h00 and had a few hours off to recover from the flight. But they picked up where they left off in Pretoria shortly before lunch with stretching, massages and foam-rolling to loosen their muscles. This was followed by a light afternoon pool and field training sessions.
“It was important to have a good recovery session after the flight, as the players need to be match ready by Saturday,” said Springbok Women’s assistant coach Renfred Dazel. “Friday will be a light day for the players as we cannot do too much 24 hours before the match, so it was important to capitalise on the time we had after touching down in London. That said the training session was of a much lower intensity than that in Pretoria, as we have to tone down the tempo of our training.”
Dazel said the field session was also important with an eye on team selection.
“We have a good idea about the player combinations that work well within the team, but there is tight competition in some positions, so we still have to decide on those.” said Dazel. “It was also important to see which players reacted well to the long flight, and that is usually easy to spot on the training field. So there are a few factors that will play a role as we finalise the team tonight.”
The Springbok Women’s team to face the Nomads will be announced on Friday.
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