Women Sevens beef up squad
Springbok Women’s Sevens coach Renfred Dazel added Libbie Janse van Rensburg and Jakkie Cilliers to his final training squad for the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series to be played in Stellenbosch later this month, while Nadine Roos will also make a timely return to SA.
The two tournaments will be played at the Markotter Stadium in Stellenbosch over the weekends of April 20-22 and April 28-30.
Dazel has been hard at work preparing his squad, with a single spot in the women’s section of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series in 2024 up for grabs.
Janse van Rensburg and Cilliers were part of the Springbok Women squad that played Tests against Canada and Spain in Madrid recently, and are familiar with Sevens rugby.
Roos, Springbok Women’s Player of the Year for 2022, is now playing in Japan and will link up with the squad in Cape Town on Sunday.
Cilliers was part of the squad that played at the HSBC
Cape Town Sevens in December, while Janse van Rensburg last played for the national Sevens team in 2016.
Both will be joining the national Sevens squad in Stellenbosch after returning from Spain.
“I coached Jakkie in the lead-up to the Dubai and Cape Town tournaments and I am very pleased to have her back in the fold,” Dazel said.
“Libbie has played a lot of Sevens before her move to Fifteens
in 2021; I coached her at national level when I started out in my first stint as coach with the Sevens women.
“I had a chat with Lynne Cantwell, our high-performance manager, about bringing them into the squad for these two crucial tournaments.
“We had some injuries to our original squad and needed depth in certain positions, and Jakkie and Libbie will provide that.
“They are nationally contracted players and by adding them to the training squad for these two very important tournaments, we will cover all our bases and it will give us a bit more leeway.”
Anacadia Minnaar and Asisipho Plaatjies have been ruled out of the squad, and Felicia Jacobs and Donelle Snyders could not train this week.
The Springbok Women’s Sevens end training in Stellenbosch this week and will join the rest of the Challenger Series squads in Cape Town next week to prepare for the tournaments.