DESPITE numerous individual errors, performance coach Swys de Bruin wants the Springbok Women to continue to be “fearless” in their approach following a hard-fought 31-24 win over Japan in the WXV 2 tournament opener at Cape Town Stadium on Friday.
The South Africans were under enormous pressure throughout, and needed desperate scramble defence in the last 10 minutes to clinch the victory.
It was a close affair from start to finish, and even though the hosts went 24-12 ahead early in the second half, the Japanese side’s slick attacking play found holes in the Bok defence.
The South Africans also didn’t help themselves with several knock-ons in the opposition half and a few wobbly touch-finders, and even though they dominated in the scrums and lineouts, they struggled to stop the Japan maul, which led to a brace of tries by No 8 Seina Saito.
The Bok backline is still getting to grips with attack guru De Bruin’s plans, and sometimes the execution with ball-in-hand and cohesion wasn’t quite in sync, and it is a major area to address ahead of Saturday’s clash against Australia at Athlone Stadium (5pm start).
“Very, very (proud of the defensive effort). I tell you what, I think I added another 10 years to my youthful age!” De Bruin said.
“I said it to the girls afterwards that if you can show that character on defence, with the amount of mistakes we made today, that means your guts was fantastic.
“You played out of your heart, and you played for one another... now we can become a team.
Great tries scored by the #BokWomen against Japan @WXVRugby pic.twitter.com/Sd9NTmNgla
— SA Women's Rugby (@WomenBoks) September 27, 2024
“From a playing point of view, I can’t give us more than 30 or 40 percent, really. But from a guts point of view, effort point of view and play-for-one-another point of view, I give them really a big, big praise.
“Don’t forget that this Japanese side have come together for three years with the same coaching staff, and the same set-up and same system.
“One or two of the (SA) coaches in Japan said to me, from the men’s side, that they are a very good team on the up, so to stop them was a great effort from the girls.”
But there were still some excellent performances, with No 8 Aseza Hele again prominent on attack and defence, while locks Vainah Ubisi and captain Nolusindiso Booi ruled the lineouts and got stuck in at close quarters.
Inside centre Chumisa Qawe was hard to stop whenever she charged at the Japan tacklers, and the front row of Sanelisiwe Charlie, Roseline Botes and Babalwa Latsha dictated matters in the scrums.
Integral in an all-round team performance 🇿![CDATA[]]>🇦
Chumisa Qawe is the @Mastercard Player of the Match 🙌#WXV | #RSAvJPN | #POTM | #Priceless pic.twitter.com/LAZHFT4Z0b
“Normally, if you make so many individual errors, you don’t win, so they fixed their errors. I said afterwards that we got six times out of jail, and seven times we locked ourselves up again with the individual errors,” De Bruin said.
“But I don’t ever want to blame players for individual mistakes, because I encourage them to play... be fearless and have a go. So, if there’s a mistake, we will just coach better.
“We don’t realise what a good win this is for our girls, because it was from our hearts. We had a few communication problems here and there, which is why we made the mistakes we made.
“But we have only been together for four-and-a-half weeks, and we have pulled off three wins so far, (and) that’s a good thing for us at stage.
What a sidestep, what a run 😮💨
South Africa kicked off their #WXV campaign in style 🔥
#WXV2 | #RSAvJPN pic.twitter.com/zx00UKEq0a
“If you understand that we are ranked 12th (in the world), and these teams are ranked higher, then every win we pull off is a positive development.”
Points scorers
South Africa 31 – Tries: Aseza Hele, Chumisa Qawe, Sanelisiwe Charlie, Ayanda Malinga, Vainah Ubisi. Conversions: Jakkie Cilliers (3)
Japan 24 – Tries: Kotomi Taniguchi, Ayasa Otsuka, Seina Saito (2). Conversions: Otsuka, Misaki Matsumura