Springbok Womens Sevens African crown revives World Series hopes

The Bok Women dominated hosts and main contenders Kenya in Sunday’s final in Nairobi, producing a commanding 22–0 victory to clinch the continental title.

Roos admitted the result does offer a measure of redemption after the LA defeat, which forced South Africa to qualify for the new second-tier HSBC Challenger Series via the regional pathway rather than automatically through the SVNS play-off.

"You know in LA there was also different pressure that we just couldn't make use of the pressure and realise that pressure is a privilege but today we really absorbed the crowd. We really know that Kenya is gonna come out guns blazing for us, they also have the confidence because they had a 3-1 win against us this year but we just came out,” Roos said.

“We went from being clinical in this game, to executing the game plan to the t and I think also our discipline also in our defence it just really worked for us and also the fighting spirit for the ladies. It really showed out in this field."

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Winning the African championship secures the Springbok Women’s Sevens a place in next season’s HSBC Challenger Series, giving them another opportunity to earn promotion back to the top-tier World SVNS circuit. 

Roos says the squad plans to seize that chance with both hands, calling the win “the first big step in the right direction.

"Yes this is only the first step in the right direction for us, so now we're gonna recover, refocus and our focus next is for the Sevens division 3 where we want to qualify for the Sevens Division 2 and initially get back into the Global Series," she added.

Next for the team is the international invitational tournament at the Emirates Dubai Sevens in two weeks’ time.