No Zintle Mpupha for BlitzBok Women's trip to Kenya
SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT: The BlitzBoks Women will be without the Springbok centra Zintle Mpupha for their HSBC SVNS 2 tournament this weekend.
Shannon-Lee Windvogel is in line to make her international debut for the BlitzBok Women’s this weekend after the former SWD Eagirls speedster was named in the South African squad for HSBC SVNS 2 in Nairobi.
However, for the rest, Cecil Afrika has retained the tried and tested core of players that will depart for Kenya on Tuesday evening.
Ten players were part of the victorious squad last month in Dubai, where South Africa’s victory in HSBC SVNS 3 saw them progress to the next qualifying phase, SVNS 2, with the stop in Nairobi the first of three tournaments.
Windvogel comes in for the injured Vianca Boer, while Lerato Makua replaces Mpupha, her Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 and Bulls Daisies teammate, who is on provincial duty.
“I am happy with the squad,” said Afrika.
“The players worked really hard over the last couple of weeks to get ready for this competition and I am happy for them; they are determined to do well and start the qualification process on a good note. We prepared well and we are ready for this unique challenge.
“Shannon-Lee is still young, but very talented and if she looks well after herself and stays disciplined, she will have a long career with us. She is very dynamic and fully fit again after a long struggle with injury. She did well when offered the opportunity in the Dubai International Invitational tournament in November and I am pleased for her.
“Lerato is back in the sevens fray and she will do well, such is her skill set and natural ability. She is quickly adapting to playing sevens again and will reach her full potential very soon.”
The format of the tournament, where the six participating sides play each other once and only log points are on offer, is new, but Afrika knows it will be the same for all the teams.
“It will be a bit different from the format that we are used to during the normal world series, where your pool matches are followed by the knock-out phase,” said Afrika.
“It does make every match very important as points difference and bonus points are also up for the taking. A losing bonus point could turn out to be very valuable and a slip up here can come back to bite you in the final tournament, so we need to take every match on its merits and make sure we pitch up every time.”
Playing in Nairobi will not be foreign for the South Africans, as they travelled to the Kenyan capital last year, where they won the Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens Championship.
“It does help knowing the lay of the land a bit,” said Afrika. “We will stay at the same hotel as last time and although we play in a different stadium, things like traffic and training venues will also be familiar to us.”
Afrika feels they have the talent and ability to get the desired results from their matches against Brazil, Spain, Kenya, China and Argentina: “We have played against all of them in the last two seasons and had wins and losses, so we know it will be up to our execution on the day.
“We had recent wins over Kenya and Argentina and were just edged by Brazil in the Dubai International Invitational tournament.”
The first match against Spain will have some sting in it, according to Afrika: “They beat us in Madrid in 2024 and that defeat dropped us out of the world series for this season. That stung and we wanted to play them again, so we now have this opportunity.”
South Africa Sevens squad:
#1 Leigh Fortuin
#2 Asisipho Plaatjies
#3 Patience Mokone
#7 Maria Tshiremba
#9 Nadine Roos (captain)
#10 Byrhandré Dolf
#12 Liske Lategan
#14 Simamkele Namba
#16 Shiniqwa Lamprecht
#23 Ayanda Malinga
#26 Lerato Makua
#28 Shannon-Lee Windvogel
