The Springbok Women did not finish their season the way they wanted, but for the team’s co-head coaches, Laurian Johannes-Haupt and Franzel September, a lot of growth, the building of depth in certain positions, and some crucial wins along the way were massive positives, although both admitted their defeat to Ireland in Cape Town on Saturday was disappointing.
The Bok coaches were quick to congratulate Ireland on their 38-17 victory at Athlone Stadium, where they finished strong with three tries in the last quarter to secure the win. It was the visitors’ second successive Test win over South Africa in the WXV Global Series after last weekend’s 40-27 win.
“They really showed their class in the last 10 minutes, and their ability to score when they were in our 22-metre area was top drawer and something we need to get to as well,” said Johannes-Haupt.
“We had our moments in the match and leading 17-14 with the last 20 minutes to play was where we wanted to be. But a yellow card and some sloppy defence out wide did not help our cause today and that was pretty disappointing.
“Overall, we showed good growth and learnings during the year, but we let ourselves down in the final minutes here.”
Johannes-Haupt said injuries disrupted their playing roster, but it also gave opportunities to younger players: “We are ultimately building towards the next World Cup and part of that strategy involves the blooding of new players, but injuries does force your hand at times. Overall though, I am pleased with the year and the development of players.”
September said the work-ons from last week were successful and they managed to dominate Ireland at times: “We certainly had a hard look at ourselves and we managed to streamline mistakes from last week, but then let it slip in the final phases of the match.
“That was disappointing of course, but that also gave us a reality check on what is needed to trade blows with the number five team in the world. They were clinical when they entered our red zone and made every entry count.”
According to September, the experience Ireland showed in closing out the match was something they can learn from.
“I had a quick chat with their coach after the game and he said that was a huge work-on for them after the last World Cup, so we can also learn from that,” he said.
“We made good strides and the next phase of our development will be to beat teams like Ireland. Our trajectory certainly points towards that.”
Solontsi said the team’s leadership made her job easy in taking over the captaincy following the injury to Babalwa Latsha.
“They added value to me and that helped a lot,” said Solontsi, one of the Bok Women’s three try-scorers.
“We saw today we can compete against the best, but the work is far from done. I told the girls afterwards that this break in our season does not mean that we can forget about rugby for a couple of months.
“We must use this time to mould our skills and add to our overall skill set. This is not a time to forget about the good things we have done, rather an opportunity to go from here and improve ourselves. When we come back next year, we must be better and more skilled.”
