Springbok Women performance coach Swys de Bruin heaped praise on his squad after a dramatic comeback performance in their WXV 2 match against Australia at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday evening brought them to the brink of a draw against the team ranked seventh in the world.
De Bruin said they are still a work in progress as they prepare for next year's Rugby World Cup in England, but that it was clear that something special is building amongst the group after the 26-33 defeat.
“They really showed tremendous guts out there and that made me very, very proud,” said De Bruin.
“They just refused to accept defeat and the fact that we came a meter short of squaring the match showed the determination. We were literally a pass away from that final try after being seemingly down and out with 15 minutes to play. Much credit must go to the players, who just refused to lie down.”
De Bruin said there were good learnings for the squad and gave Australia credit for outflanking them to score some good tries.
“Yes, we came up short with that (wide defence) today, but that was individual errors rather than the system lacking,” he said.
“A player missing a tackle cannot be the fault of the defence coach for example and we missed too many on the flanks, allowing their speedy wings to score very impressive tries.”
De Bruin was happy with a number of aspects of the team’s effort and said the two bonus points gained out of the match – one for scoring four tries and another for being within seven points – were some reward for the effort.
“We have played Australia three times in the past and never managed to score a try against them,” said De Bruin.
“We scored four today and was held up for a fifth, which is not bad against a side that could easily have been playing in the WXV 1 tournament right now. It was a performance that leaves us with good pointers on where to improve and we learned that you have to be clinical against the top sides in the world.”
De Bruin said the loss of Jakkie Cilliers early in the game due to a bad cut to the forehead impacted on their kicking game: “We also went with only two backs, so today that did not quite work for us. Having said that though, our bomb squad principle worked really well and was instrumental in that amazing fightback we had.”
De Bruin also thanked Siya Kolisi for his support of the Bok Women, with the Springbok captain speaking to the team in the change room before the game.
Kolisi’s speech made the defeat a little easier to absorb, but only just, according to Bok Women captain Lusanda Dumke: “Siya is such an inspirational figure to all and to have him encouraging us was huge. The way we fought back was coming from the words he spoke.
“He said when the chips are down, we should start playing for each other and the player next to you. That is exactly what transpired in those last minutes. Australia played a clever game today and congratulations to them, but it is massive for us to know that we were right in it until the very last play of the match.”
With one round to go, the Springbok Women are third on the WXV 2 log with seven log points, Scotland are second with eight and Australia are top with 10 points after two matches.
The final round of games will be played next weekend and with Scotland and Australia playing each other, a strong win over Italy could still push South Africa to the top of the standings.