Springbok Women's Sevens eye World Championship spot as Roos demands strong start

Captain Nadine Roos says the squad is focused on locking in qualification as soon as possible when they take the field at Estadio Charrúa this weekend.

South Africa face a demanding schedule, starting with three matches on Saturday against Spain, China and Brazil. They will then wrap up their campaign on Sunday with clashes against Kenya and Argentina in a round-robin format where all teams play each other once, with standings determined by log points.

A runner-up finish in the opening tournament in Kenya last month has already put the South Africans in a strong position to claim one of four qualification spots for the World Championship.

Another solid showing in Uruguay would bring them to the brink of qualification, with one final tournament remaining in Brazil next weekend.

"Without getting ahead of ourselves, the goal is to walk away winners from this tournament," Roos said from Uruguay.

"We take nothing for granted from the Kenya tournament, only the log points. We edged Spain, lost to Brazil and it was only against China that we could really get a big win. So we start all over again with our mindset that of expecting the unexpected.

"Spain will feel they were close enough to overturn the result, Brazil have the confidence of beating us and China will be looking for revenge. So we are well aware that all of them will be coming for us."

The focus on day one will be about starting strong, said Roos: "The first challenge is Spain and we are just looking at that match and what will be required for the win. Once we crossed that hurdle, we can look at the next challenge."

According to Roos, who was recently named SA Rugby Women's Player of the Year, the South Africans worked hard at their Stellenbosch base to be ready for this weekend.

"Our work-ons was in transitioning from defence to attack, we were not at our best in that aspect in Kenya," she said. "Also, defence is an attitude and ours will be not to miss any tackles and put in significant hits."

The team had a delayed departure to South America, but Roos said they took it in in their stride: "We adapted our training schedule, the team doctor adjusted our sleeping schedule and we accepted that the delay was out of our hands. So we arrived in a good space, had a good training session and will be ready on Saturday."

Due to the delayed flight, the squad could watch the Blitzboks' victory over Fiji in the final of the HSBC SVNS New York, and the performance by their "Stellenbosch brothers" was inspiring, Roos said.

"The Blitzboks really inspired us - we watched the final and that was special," she said.

"The way they stayed in the fight in that last minute to keep Fiji out was true to the core of our sevens system and we want to do the same when in a similiar situation.

"That was a good case study of how the system will look after you if you stick to it and trust it. We want to do the same this weekend. It was a case of the winner takes it all and they had the will power to outlast Fiji."

The weekend will be special for Maceala Samboya and Shanidiné Bezuidenhout, who are in line to make their debuts for the Springbok Women's Sevens.

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