September calls for improvement despite winning start in Kenya

There were a lot of positives, but as in any rugby match, things that did not go according to plan and will be a work-on before the Springbok Women’s next match in the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup in Kenya.

That was the verdict of Springbok Women assistant coach Franzel September after their opening match on Saturday in Nairobi, where the Springbok Women outplayed Madagascar 64-5.

“We did a lot of good things, and there are things that we also were not good at, but that was expected as it was our first match of the season,” said September.

“It took 80 minutes and we played 80 minutes. I am a happy and proud coach involved with this team of their effort, and the errors we made were certainly not because of a lack of effort.

“We did not always stay calm; at times we were over eager to score points. We did concede unnecessary penalties for high tackles and being offsides, things we were not we proud of. We need to be better in those aspects.”

September said Madagascar was a tough opponent who refused to stop playing, and he gave them credit for staying in the match for 80 minutes.

“They kept the ball alive – they are an opponent that keeps you honest,” he said.

“They were good at the breakdown and that is an area we need to look at before we play Uganda on Wednesday. At times, we were turned over too easy because we did not have the numbers at the breakdown, but also, this is something we can fix.”

September congratulated the six new caps that earned their spurs on Saturday: “It is always nice when a debutant makes an impact and all six can look back at this match knowing they did what was expected of them. Congratulations to them and their families.”

Regarding injuries and selection options for the Uganda match, September said: “We will know in 24 hours regarding injuries and niggles and once we have that, we will select our team for Uganda.”

Uganda faced Kenya in the second match of the day, with the host nation proving too strong for their western neighbours, winning 43-10.