OPINION: Springbok women disappoint in World Cup campaign

It was a very disappointing weekend for the Springbok women’s team as it seemed like all the effort and positive strides that they put in over the past year went to waste when they were beaten 21-17 by Fiji in their World Cup pool C match in Auckland on Sunday.

Despite having a very good year leading up to the World Cup, with the Springbok women winning five of their six matches, including a historic first win overseas against Japan and a historic first win and then series win over Spain who they outclassed in Johannesburg and Potchefstroom.

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They thus went into the World Cup with plenty of confidence, but also knew that their backs would be against the wall from the start as they were in a pool with the current world number one side England, and fourth in the world France.

It essentially meant that qualifying for the quarterfinals, which the Springbok women have never done before, would likely come down to them attempting to finish as one of the top two third placed teams, who will also progress to the quarters.

However any chance of that happening promptly went out the window with their loss against Fiji.

Their opening match was a big 40-5 defeat against France, although the Springbok women were competitive for most of the game, while Fiji went down heavily, 84-19, against England.

Must win

This made the Fiji match a must win for the Springbok women if they were to try and reach the knockout phase for the first time.

But despite being ranked 10 places above Fiji (before the match) and having a number of experienced players in the match 23 who had played at a World Cup before, they slipped up and handed the Fiji women’s team their first ever World Cup win.

The Springbok women will now need to try and pick themselves up for their final pool match against England women on Sunday.

The England women have not lost a match since 2019 and are hot favourites to lift the World Cup and have already qualified for the knockouts after following up their massive win over Fiji, with a hard fought 13-7 win against France.

The Springbok women will thus need to just try and put in a strong performance and hopefully not be completely overrun like Fiji were.