Afrika admits Bok Women must improve despite encouraging signs in Hong Kong

The Bok Women suffered opening defeats to Australia and Canada, responded with a key pool-stage win over Great Britain, but then lost to Great Britain in the ninth-place semi-final before falling to Argentina, with injuries, a red card and inconsistency at kick-offs compounding their struggles as they ultimately finishing the competition in 12th place.

The team now have a massive battle on their hands to climb their way into the top eight in the final two events in Spain and France next month, Afrika admitted.

"The win over Great Britain on Saturday was massive for us because they had core status this year and we did not," said Afrika.

"It proved to us that we can play at that level and win, but only if we use our opportunities. When we played them again on the same day, but did not do that, we paid the price. That was a good lesson to learn, and we will be better for it."

Coming into the tournament without a number of injured regular starters meant the Bok Women were under pressure from the start, but they had their moments against Australia and Canada, who are in the top four of the rankings.

Afrika said: "We saw when we stuck to our plans, we achieved results. The team did not have that much time together due to all the injuries and short turnaround, so we can certainly be better in the departments where we did well.

"And of course, we will be better in those areas where we showed weakness. We have a lot of work to do back at home."

An injury to Asisipho Plaatjies on day one did not help either, neither did the red card to Lerato Makua for head contact against Great Britain in their playoff match on the second day. The Bok Women were also forced to make the trip to Hong Kong without some key stars, including central playmaker Nadine Roos.

The intensity of the matches also caught up with his squad, Afrika said: "We are not used to that and could not respond well enough. Especially our kick-offs and kick-off receives were not up to standard and that is an area we will work one once we come back home.

"I am pleased with some of our work on attack, where we managed to create some good tries when everyone was on the same page. We could not always sustain that, which is something we will try to fine tune as we prepare for the tournaments in Spain and France next month."

READ MORE: Speechless Snyman reflects on Blitzboks' watershed Hong Kong title