Springbok Women claimed a comfortable 36-19 (halftime, 12-7) win over Spain Women in a preparation match for WXV 2.
The South African women’s national rugby side beat their Spanish counterparts 36-19 on Thursday evening at DHL Stadium in Cape Town in a one-off Test match.
The match served as preparation for the WXV tournaments, which begin next week. South Africa will participate in WXV 2 at home while Spain will play in WXV 3 in Dubai.
The Springbok Women’s strong forward pack laid the foundation for their win, with five of South Africa’s six tries coming off the back of either a scrum or a lineout. Spain also couldn’t handle the Boks’ physicality in the tackle.
The Spanish displayed slick handling and interplay, but they were repelled by the tenacious Bok defence. Spain spent the better part of the opening 10 minutes within 5m of the Bok try line, but the defensive line stood like a brick wall.
It was a wall that eventually broke as both teams felt each other out in extremely windy conditions in the first half. The scoring floodgates opened in the second half, with South Africa scoring four tries and Spain two.
Tough conditions
Spain were the more imaginative side in the first half, breaking the South African line twice through well-timed inside balls against a shifting defence.
They were rewarded the second time, when flyhalf Amalia Argudo scored under the posts from a searing run that started on the Bok 10m line.
The Boks hit back immediately from the restart. Spain spilt the ball deep in their half and South Africa capitalised with their powerful scrum.
No 8 Aseza Hele picked up the ball from the forward-moving scrum and stormed her way over one tackler while carrying another over the try line with her.
South Africa scored near identical maul tries either side of halftime, with hooker Lindelwa Gwala going over on both occasions, pushing their 12-7 halftime lead to 19-7.
From there, the match opened up, with South Africa’s fourth try also coming off the back of the powerful forward pack, this time a scrum in the Spanish half.
The ball spread wide from the scrum and fullback Libbie Janse van Rensburg went over after a clever dummy pass, becoming the first Springbok Women’s player to pass 200 points.
Spain stayed in the fight, however, and replacement outside back Martina Marquez scored in the corner.
Bok lock Vainah Ubisi, who carried strongly throughout the game, was rewarded with a fortuitous try. She caught the ball in the middle of a mistimed lineout, having not jumped, and barged over from 5m out.
The match was as good as sealed at that point, with the Boks leading 31-12 with 10 minutes left.
Both sides went over once more. SA winger Shanique Hess capitalised on Spain’s late endeavour with an interception try and Spain centre Zahia Perez scored after the hooter after another period of extended pressure on the Springboks’ try line.