It was the SA women's team's final match before the Rugby World Cup.
Springbok women’s team coach Swys de Bruin says their victory against a New Zealand Black Ferns XV in Cape Town on Saturday was a massive confidence-booster ahead of the World Cup taking place in a few weeks’ time.
The SA women’s Boks beat a New Zealand women’s side 41-24 at the Athlone Stadium to end their World Cup preparations on a high.
The team had been beaten 34-26 by the same opponents the week before.
’Close to where we wanted to be’
“I think we are now close to where we wanted to be a few weeks out from the Rugby World Cup,” said De Bruin.
“The team really played well tonight and executed the tweaks we, and that delivered not only a winning result, but also a boost of confidence to the squad and management.
“We worked hard to get to this point, and I can honestly say this was one of the best performances we had since I joint the squad just over a year ago.”
De Bruin said the players took the responsibility to change last weekend’s result upon themselves and made a mental switch for this weekend’s game.
“It started with our jersey presentation when Babalwa (Latsha) made a wonderful speech to the team and they embraced the message she delivered that it was time to take the opportunities that they create,” he said. “They showed exactly that today, it was such an inspiring performance.”
De Bruin said their Rugby World Cup preparations are now complete and they can finally focus on their next task, the opening match against Brazil in Northampton in just over two weeks’ time.
“The coaches are happy that we got our combinations and spine right and we can go to the World Cup 99% sure of what we need to do to have the best performance ever,” De Bruin said. “We needed this win and the way we did it, was an extra boost.”
South Africa are in Pool D at the World Cup, with France, Italy and Brazil.
The Springbok women’s squad for the Rugby World Cup 2025 will be announced on Saturday, 9 August.
SA World Cup fixtures
Brazil – Sunday 24 August, 3.45pm
Italy – Sunday 31 August, 4.30pm
France – Sunday 7 September, 5.45pm
