Cape Town — The Springbok Women's Sevens team finished day one of the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series unbeaten when they thrashed Mexico and drew with Czechia.
Madagascar (11:10am kickoff) now awaits the South Africans in their final pool match on Friday, ahead of the playoffs that will determine which side becomes a core team in the World Series next season.
The matches in Stellenbosch on Thursday were impacted by rain and the muddy field conditions made play difficult, but that didn't stop the South African team from putting up a display and beating Mexico 36-0 in their second match.
Earlier on Thursday, as the rain came down, the team made a slow start, drawing 7-7 with Czechia.
Coach Renfred Dazel said he wants to see an improved performance on defence against their fellow African team on Friday.
“We will have to defend better than we did today (Thursday) if we want to stay undefeated in this competition,” Dazel said.
“We were slow out of the blocks against Czechia and we cannot afford it again. We did not adapt that well to the conditions and the result showed that. We were unfortunate when our last try was ruled out, but that is part of the game.”
SA scored first against the Czechs when Simamkele Namba went over for a converted try. That was the only score of the half with a physical Czechia keeping SA at bay.
Conditions worsened in the second half, which also saw the home team concede penalties at the breakdown with one of them leading to a converted try.
Against Mexico, SA looked sharp from the start and four tries, two by veteran Mathrin Simmers, handed the South Africans a 26-0 lead. Two more tries in the second seven minutes sealed the win, with Mexico being kept scoreless by some good defence.
SA will have to put up another good defensive display against Madagascar to keep their momentum going ahead of the playoffs.
Dazel also wants his team not to take their foot off the gas when they have a healthy lead, but instead to keep up the pressure.
“Madagascar plays a lot like Mexico on attack and do not stop making tackles, so we need to keep pressing. The difference will be our effort on the attack though,” he said.
"We went to sleep against Mexico in the second half a bit and cannot afford that against Madagascar.”
Springbok Women's results
South Africa v Czechia
South Africa 7 — Try: Simamkele Namba. Conversion: Eloise Webb.
Czechia 7 — Try: Anežka-Marta Sládková. Conversion: Kristýna Plevová.
South Africa v Mexico
South Africa 36 — Tries: Mathrin Simmers (2), Eloise Webb, Simamkele Namba, Ayanda Malinga, Nadine Roos. Conversions: Webb (3).