Johannesburg - The Springbok women’s team have put their sobering 40-5 defeat to France behind them and are determined to beat Fiji on Sunday in their second match of the World Cup (6.45am kickoff).
To be frank, many people thought the Boks would lose by a bigger margin to the team ranked third in the world and scrumhalf Rumandi Potgieter says the players have taken to the practice field packed with positivity.
“We are really happy to be back on the training field, this is where we need to be right now,” said Potgieter.
“When we looked at what went wrong against France we realised that there were a lot of good things we did, apart from a couple of poor options on defence that were exploited by France, who showed why they are one of the top sides of the world.”
Potgieter said they were keen to work on the shortcomings exposed at Eden Park, but also add more variety to their game.
“We have a plan to combat Fiji,” she said. “They don't play with much structure; they love to play the situation and what is in front of them. That makes them unpredictable and hard to analyse.
“We have not played them before and they have not played many Tests either, so there is not too much footage of them. We will have to make sure we focus on our game though, as that is what will bring the result.
“We need to impose our style on them, not the other way around. If we do that, we will be in a great position to claim the win.”
A win is non-negotiable for the Boks if they want to keep their hopes alive of finishing in the top eight and qualifying for the playoffs, according to Potgieter.
“Our mission is clear – we need to win, and we need to win with a bonus point by scoring four tries. So, we have a clear idea of what we need to do and how to get the perfect outcome,” Potgieter said.
“We do not want to go back (to South Africa) after our final pool game. We have just settled in, gotten used to the weather and experienced all the drama and emotions of being part of the World Cup. We certainly want more and as many opportunities as possible to showcase our team to the world.”
England and France currently top Pool C, with five points each. South Africa and Fiji are yet to score a log point, with the Boks in third place due to a better points difference to Fiji (-35 and -65).
IOL Sport