Border women take pride of place at Bok training camps
BORDER women’s rugby once again showed the healthy state it currently finds itself in when 15 players arrived in Cape Town yesterday to take part in two South African rugby national training camps.
Ten players from the Border women’s senior team and six players from the U20 squad were picked to take part in the camp which continues until Sunday, in line with SA Rugby’s plans to boost the national women’s structures.
In total 65 women from across the country were selected, 33 players in the senior women’s group and 32 in the U20s, with Border the most represented union, followed closely behind by Western Province, who have 14 reps.
Border women forwards Thuliswa Capa and Asithandile Ntoyanto (props), Xolelwa Diliza (hooker) and Lusanda Dumke (loose-forward), along with backline players Fundiswa Plaatjie (scrumhalf ), Nosiphiwo Goda and Aphiwe Ngwevu (centres) and Snenhlanhla Shozi, Siviwe Basweni and Eloise Webb (fullbacks) will be eager to impress during the camp.
A number of former Border players are also in the squad, including last year’s captain Nolusindiso Booi, now at WP, who has gone on to captain the SA women’s team, wing Unathi Mali, now at Eastern Province, and prop Thantaswa Macingwane, now at the Blue Bulls, showing the impressive reach of Border women’s rugby.
These camps follow a national women’s assessment camp in March, where a number of these players were put through their paces with a battery of tests to measure their strength, fitness and conditioning.
These camps are vital for the preparation of the players to prove that they have what it takes to stake a claim for places in the Springbok Women’s squad for a tour to the UK in November.
On the tour the Springbok Women’s team will play two Tests against Wales on November 7 and 17, as well as games against the UK Armed Forces on November 2 and the Crawshays (also known as the Welsh Barbarians) on November 11.
Twenty-four of the senior players and one U20 player were in the SA Select Women’s squad that travelled to the UK last season, where they faced the England Academy team and the British Army.
Basweni and Phumeza Gadu (EP), who were both members of the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup squad, are among three new faces in the senior group.
Both players featured in the Springbok Women’s Sevens squad in the last few seasons.
Their presence increases the number of capped Women’s World Cup players in the training squad to seven, with the others being Celeste Adonis (WP), Booi, Macingwane, Ntoyanto and Plaatjie.
The U20 players will also have the bigger picture in mind of working their way into the senior squad for the 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup.
The squads will have a series of training and gym sessions throughout their respective camps, which will be capped off with chukkas between the sides on Saturday.
Border’s emerging U20 players will also be keen to make a mark at the camp.
Border U20 players selected: Yonela Ngxingolo (prop), Yandisa Nobanda (scrumhalf ), Chumisa Qawe and Simamkele Namba (centres) and Chuma Qawe (fullback).