The Springbok Women’s Sevens have known for a while what lies in wait for them when Rugby World Cup Sevens kicks off in Cape Town on Friday, have prepared for it and now have the opportunity to seize the moment.
That is the assurance from head coach Paul Delport as the South Africans head towards their tournament opener against France on Friday evening (kick-off at 18h35) in front of what is expected to be a full house for the last game on the women’s schedule for the first day.
“We prepared well over the last couple of months, but more importantly, over the last couple of days,” Delport said after the team completed their preparations on Thursday morning.
“The intensity was good and that is always pleasing to any coach, while we also have good clarity on what we want to do during the match.”
Delport said they did not look past their first-round opponent, a team ranked much higher than them, and all focus and planning went into the French game.
“The knock-out format of the tournament suits us I believe, as it gives the underdogs in the tournament a fighting chance,” said Delport.
“The straight knock-out nature of the opening day does put pressure on the bigger teams at the tournament, as they dare not to slip up and knocked over by a team that would not normally be expected to beat them.
“We are facing a fully professional outfit in France, while we are not. We devised a plan to take them on and beat them – whether that is going to work for us will be clear tomorrow night. The girls are really keen to use the energy and support from the home crowd to our advantage and I think we will put up a strong performance against a very good team.”
Delport said his team want to make South Africa proud: “We know the crowd is going to back us massively and we want to respond to that in a positive way by delivering a performance they will be proud of.
“If we can walk off the field knowing we did that, the result will almost not matter,” said the coach, who also took charge of the team at the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens held in San Francisco, where South Africa finished 14th out of the 16 teams, recording their solitary win over Mexico.
France finished seventh in 2018 and according to the South African co-captain Sizophila Solontsi, the more-fancied visitors from Europe can be beaten by the host nation.
“I think we can do; we certainly believe we can,” said Solontsi, who also played for the Springbok Women in their recent Test victories over Japan and Spain.
“The half-dozen players who came back from the fifteens certainly brough some confidence and that winning mentality with them to this team and it rubbed off. There is a particularly good interaction between those players and the core sevens players, and we combined well during training these last couple of days.
“We have devised a way how we believe is best to beat France and will be hoping to execute that come tomorrow,” she added.
For Solontzi and the rest of the team, playing in front of a huge support base will be a massive boost: “We have decided to make this tournament very personal. This is our tournament, our stadium in our country in front of our fans.
“So, each and every player will play with that drive behind them – we are playing for our country after all.”
