History beckons for in-form Springbok women at Rugby World Cup

After a groundbreaking year, the confident Springbok women’s team is hoping to make history at the Rugby World Cup, which kicks off in New Zealand on Saturday.

It has been a superb season for the SA women’s side, enjoying a couple of historic moments already, and they are now targeting a huge performance at the showpiece event.

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This will be only the fourth time that the Springbok women will compete at a World Cup, having previously appeared at the 2006, 2010 and 2014 events.

Previous results

They went winless through the 2006 event in Canada, finishing last, and picked up one win over Samoa at the 2014 event in France, which saw them finish 10th out of the 12 teams.

They enjoyed their best showing at the 2010 event in England when they beat Wales in the pool stages, their only pool win to date, and then Kazakhstan in the lower place playoffs before losing against Wales to finish 10th.

It has been a strong 2022 campaign for the Springbok women, however, and they have won five of their six games, ensuring they head into the World Cup with good momentum.

They thrashed fellow African sides Zimbabwe and Namibia early in the season, before traveling to Japan for a two-Test series, losing the first match 15-6.

Their next three games were then all history makers as they picked up their first ever win on foreign soil when they beat Japan 20-10 in the second Test.

They followed that up with a two-Test series against Spain in South Africa, where they crushed the visitors 44-5 in the opening match at Ellis Park – which was their first ever victory over Spain – before following that up with a 37-14 win in Potchefstroom to seal their first series win over the tourists.

Tough pool

The Springbok women find themselves in a tough World Cup pool, featuring top ranked England and fourth-ranked France.

But, ranked 11th in the world, they will be hot favourites to beat 21st ranked Fiji in their second match of the tournament.

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They will also be eager to make some more history by upsetting one of the world’s top teams to qualify for the quarterfinals for the first time, and they will get their first chance to do that when they take on France in their tournament opener on Saturday.