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Cape Town - Springbok Women’s Sevens coach Renfred Dazel was satisfied with his team’s remarkable improvement and some strong performances to finish eighth in Dubai on Friday, despite suffering defeats in all three of their matches during the day.
The Bok Women’s Sevens went down to New Zealand in their Cup quarter-final in the opening match of the day, 39-0, and then lost 19-12 against Canada in the fifth place semi-final and 31-5 against France in the seventh place-playoff.
Dazel was satisfied with his team’s improvement in the tournament since they last featured on the World Series 18 months ago.
“The girls played well,” said Dazel, who guided his team to the quarter-final for the first time during his coaching tenure.
“We came to Dubai seeded in 12th place and we finished eighth, which is very pleasing. Unfortunately the results did not go our way on Friday, but we will remain positive going forward,” said Dazel.
“One of the biggest lessons we learned was to get the girls to maintain their form on the second day because they performed very well on the first day, but they were overwhelmed by the occasion of playing in the quarter-final and their quality of play dropped on the second day.”
Looking ahead, Dazel said: “Going forward we would like to get new players in the set-up and keep working hard so hopefully we can play our way back onto the World Series circuit next year.”
In their opening match, New Zealand stamped their authority early on and scored three first-half tries for a 17-0 lead at the break, and they built on this in the second half with another four tries to secure victory by 39-0.
Veroeshka Grain’s team started their fifth place semi-final against Canada slowly as they allowed the opposition to score two first-half tries to take an encouraging 12-0 lead. They added their third try early in the second half to push their score to 19 points.
But the Springbok Women’s Sevens staged a dramatic comeback with Phumeza Gadu and Zintle Mpupha scoring tries in the closing minutes to trail 19-12. With the clock winding down fast, they were unable to add to this score and had to settle for the seven-point defeat.
The Bok Women’s Sevens started their clash strongly against France with Nadine Roos, who scored three tries on Thursday, opening up the scoring in the fourth minute. But they were unable to build on this as France stepped up their attack and tightened up their defence, which saw them run in five tries for a 31-5 victory.
Springbok Women’s Sevens Day 2 results, Dubai World Series:
New Zealand 39-0 SA
SA 12-19 Canada
SA 5-31 France
Bok Women’s Sevens Day 1 results, Dubai Women’s Sevens Series:
SA 5–38 Australia
SA 26-7 USA
SA 14-19 Russia
