The Springbok Women departed for London on their Rugby World Cup warm-up tour on Wednesday in high spirits after an intense one-week training camp in Pretoria. The tour will serve as the team’s main preparation for the IRB Women’s Rugby World Cup in France.
The Springbok Women, with four DHL WP ladies in the mix, will face the Nomads twice on June 28 and July 1, respectively, before travelling to France for a Test match against the World Cup hosts in Marcoussis, where the pool stages of the World Cup will be hosted.
The World Cup will be played from August 1 to 17.
“The training camp in Pretoria was very productive for this tour as well as for the World Cup as it allowed us to spend a lot of time on our game plan
and structures, while also getting the various player combinations to gel,” said Springbok Women’s coach Lawrence Sephaka. “The players also had sufficient time to bond off the field, which is important before a challenging tour.”
The team will arrive in London on Thursday morning, with their first clash against the Nomads taking place on Saturday at 14h00, which will give the players sufficient time to recover from the trip. But with most of the preparation completed at the training camp, Sephaka said they would manage the players carefully on Thursday and Friday.
“The players had a series of high-intensity training sessions in the last week, which was planned in advance so that we could tone down the tempo of our training closer to matchday,” said Sephaka. “(So) we plan to manage their workload wisely when we arrive in London to ensure that they are fresh when they take to the field.
“The Nomads are a quality team comprised of a few international fringe players and a several experienced players, so we are expecting them to tests us.
“Some of the players have played against the Nomads before, so they know that they will have to approach the match as seriously as the Test against France.”
The Springbok Women’s squad for Saturday’s clash will be announced on Friday.
Springbok Women’s Rugby World Cup squad (alphabetical order):
Forwards: Celeste Adonis (DHL Western Province), Nolusindiso Booi (Border), Nomathamsanqa Faleni (Eastern Province), Rachelle Geldenhuys (Blue Bulls), Portia Jonga (Eastern Province), Cebisa Kula (Eastern Province), Thantaswa Macingwana (Border), Lamla Momoti (Border), Nwabisa Ngxatu (Border), Asithandile Ntoyanto (Border), Vuyolwethu Vazi (Blue Bulls), Denita Wentzel (DHL Western Province), Shona-Leah Weston (Blue Bulls), Mandisa Williams (Border, captain).
Backs: Siviwe Basweni (Border), Lorinda Brown (Eastern Province), Cindy Cant (Blue Bulls), Phumeza Gadu (Eastern Province), Veroeshka Grain (DHL Western Province), Zenay Jordaan (Border), Tayla Kinsey (KwaZulu-Natal), Benele Makwezela (DHL Western Province), Fundiswa Plaatjie (Border), Marithy Pienaar (Blue Bulls), Siphosethu Tshingana (Eastern Province), Ziyanda Tywaleni (Border).
Springbok Women’s Rugby World Cup management team: Lawrence Sephaka (head coach), Renfred Dazel (assistant coach), Heyno Kraft (biokineticist), Tanushree Pillay (physiotherapist), Jerome Mampane (team doctor), Nomsebenzi Tsotsobe-Calata (manager), Zeena Isaacs (media manager).
