Tshiremba: “We want to finish strong in Sao Paulo”

Having qualified for the HSBC SVNS World Championship series with one tournament left to play was a huge relief to the Springbok Women’s Sevens squad, but according to Maria Tshiremba, they are not done and still want to win this weekend when the final HSBC SVNS 2 tournament takes place in Estadio Nicolau Alayon in Sao Paulo.

Tshiremba, who has scored 11 tries in the three qualifying events prior to the Brazil finale, in Dubai (HSBC SVNS 3), Nairobi and Montevideo, said the World Championship qualification was a huge relief and something they are very happy about.

“But the work is not done,” she said. “It is our aim to finish SVNS 2 on the strongest possible terms. A win will not only be reward for our hard work, but will also improve our confidence going to Hong Kong.”

The South Africans will be ready to bounce back from last weekend, where they finished on a disappointing note, losing 22-10 to Argentina in their final match.

“Back-to-back tournaments are tough on the body – in fact, it can be brutal,” said Tshiremba, who plays her provincial rugby for the Isuzu Bulls Daisies.

“But we came through Montevideo all right, so I know everyone will be ready to fire again. We only get so many opportunities to play for our country, and we want to make the most of each one.”

The Bok speedster said the match against Argentina last weekend will motivate them, “We did not defend well enough against Argentina. They play a very good offloading game and that created gaps in our defence.

“For us to fix that, we need more dominant tackles and that is something we had worked on this week. But it is not Argentina only, we must make sure we are accurate against all our opponents, each of them deserve our respect and our A-game.”

The 30-year-old’s try-scoring ability has her teammates, opponents and pundits in awe, not to mention the social media highlights videos that were created of some of her five pointers.

“Yes, I am getting more confident the more tries I have scored – I am trusting my ability to beat opponents and how to use my speed effectively,” she said.

“But I still need my teammates to create the gaps for me to run into them, so every try is also a testimony of their hard work.”

South Africa face Spain in their opening match again on Saturday, before taking on Kenya and Brazil. On Sunday, they will finish the tournament against Argentina and China.

Springbok Women’s Sevens fixtures:

Saturday, 28 March (SA times, all matches live on SuperSport)

4:06pm: Spain

7:18pm: Kenya

10:49pm: Brazil

Sunday, 29 March

5:28pm: Argentina

8:18pm: China