Key figure to miss Bok Women series against USA

EXCLUSIVE: The Springbok Women will be without one of their key players when they take on the USA in a two-Test series next month.

Fresh from claiming the Rugby Africa Cup title in Kenya, the Bok Women have shifted their focus to a sterner challenge against the USA.

South Africa will host the Americans in Johannesburg (Saturday, July 4) and Pretoria (Saturday, July 11), with the Tests at Ellis Park and Loftus Versfeld forming part of double-headers alongside the Springboks’ fixtures against England and Scotland.

The Bok Women and the USA have never met in South Africa before. Their last encounter was in March 2024, when the USA won 38-17 at the Ealing Trailfinders Sports Ground in London.

While there are no new injuries to report, Springbok Women assistant coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt confirmed that star utility back Nadine Roos will miss the series, while experienced forward Aseza Hele is expected to return.

Roos sustained a knee injury during the HSBC SVNS tournament in March.

Hele underwent surgery after playing with a broken finger during the Women’s Super League earlier this year.

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“Nadine is a proper athlete who just wants to get better, and she’s doing everything she possibly can to speed up her recovery while following the guidelines of the professional medical teams here.

“But Hele will join us in the near future,” Johannes-Haupt told Rugby365 at the Cape Town International Airport.

Johannes-Haupt expects a tough examination against a USA side that competed in the Pacific Four Series against Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

“USA, we definitely expect a proper encounter. Really, they just came from a Pacific Four tournament (Australia, New Zealand and Canada). We haven’t had a big tournament like that to participate in.

“They’ve competed against bigger and higher-ranked teams. We’ve played in Africa, so you can’t really measure where we are compared to where they are.

“But we know we’re definitely going there to put our best foot forward and do the best we possibly can.”

The assistant coach believes South Africa’s set-piece strength can be a major weapon

“As long as our fundamentals and building blocks are correctly in place, we can compete with the bigger teams.

“I do believe we’re one of the best scrummaging teams in the world. You could see even in Africa that our dominance at scrum time came through.

“And that is from a foundation that was built, even with this young group. They know what the expectations are. So going into the USA series, we’ll continue on that trajectory and do our best at scrum time.”

Africa Cup success highlights growing depth

The Bok Women’s Rugby Africa Cup triumph underlined the progress being made in the women’s game.

They claimed their sixth Rugby Africa Cup title on Sunday following a hard-fought 35-20 win over Kenya in Nairobi after earlier wins over Madagascar and Uganda.

The achievement was made even more impressive by the absence of several first-choice players.

Head coach Swys de Bruin remained in South Africa as part of a two-squad strategy, with assistant coaches Laurian Johannes-Haupt and Franzel September leading the team in Kenya.

Of the 28 players selected, only nine featured at the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup in England, while another nine earned their first Test caps.

“Holistically, women’s rugby in South Africa, is on an upward trajectory.

“It’s a blessing that we could take those girls [debutants] and expose them to what it’s like to play in Africa and what it’s like to compete.”

She added that the two-squad approach is helping to build greater depth within the national setup.

“It was important for us to create opportunities for the girls in our system.

“We are generally building a bigger, broader base for the women’s game so that when we need players, we can simply turn to our next best options, which is this group that we are currently working with.

“It’s exciting to see where they are as well because they’ve really come on in leaps and bounds, and they truly want to do the country proud.

“So, for us to have given them caps and the necessary opportunities is really good for where we’re going.”