Springbok Women seal 2-0 series win over Spain in Potch

The Springbok Women scored 23 unanswered points in the second half to overcome Spain 37-14 in the final match of their Winter Women's Series at Fanie du Toit Stadium in Potchefstroom on Friday.

The South Africans claimed a 2-0 series sweep over Spain and they have also managed five wins from their six matches this year, which coach Stanley Raubenheimer says is good preparation for the Word Cup in October.

Over the past few weeks, the Springbok Women registered three consecutive wins over Japan and two over Spain to catch up with both in the world rankings.

“It is great to move in the right direction when it comes to world ranking but we did not start this journey four years ago with that in mind,” said Raubenheimer.

“We needed to get a team ready and competitive to play at the biggest stage, of the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and I am pleased with where we are after today’s match, our last in that whole journey.”

The team won five of their last six Test matches, with a close defeat to Japan in Kamaishi last month the only stain on what proved to be a landmark year for the team.

“There has been a lot of work and planning done to get everything in place for the World Cup. We used almost 60 players over the four years and managed to end up with a squad at this camp that will be pretty close to the one going to New Zealand.

“We wanted a settled squad to travel there, and I think we managed to get pretty close to that. We finished the Spain camp with 34 players, with 32 allowed to go to the World Cup.”

Though they managed to win 37-14 on Friday night, the Springbok Women went to the halftime break trailing 14-10 and Raubenheimer said they had themselves to blame for that.

“We were just too eager and pushing too hard in that first half. Once we calmed things down and dictated the pace of the game, the tries came,” he said.

Captain for the day Babalwa Latsha echoed the same sentiments.

“We conceded too many penalties, rushed on attack and that resulted in us losing a bit of structure. Once we rectified that and stuck to our processes, the results came and that will give us peace of mind come October 8 and that opening game of the Rugby World Cup against France.”

Scorers:

SA 37 (10)

Tries: Roseline Botes, Sinazo Mcatshulwa, Nomawethu Mabenge, Nadine Roos, Lusanda Dumke.

Conversions: Zenay Jordaan. Libbie Janse van Rensburg (2).

Penalty goal: Janse van Rensburg.

Drop Goal: Libbie Janse van Rensburg

Spain 14 (14)

Try: Alba Capell

Penalty try

Conversion: Inés Bueso-Inchausti.

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