Booi out to take Bok women to the top
● Though Springboks Women appear to have no chance of making it out of their Rugby World Cup group, captain Nolusindiso Booi believes the team should use the tournament to learn and keep growing.
Booi and her team left SA yesterday for the world showpiece in New Zealand that begins on October 8.
The tournament was initially set to take place last year but was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Boks women coach Stanley Raubenheimer announced his squad of 32 players, a mix of experienced stars and promising young talent.
SA are in the same pool with 2017 World Cup runners-up and top-ranked England, fourth ranked France, and Fiji.
England and France are clear favourites to make it out of the group, to be in contention for the title together with defending champions and five-times winner New Zealand.
Booi said the team understand their tough task ahead but a great achievement for SA would be to improve on their 2010 and 2014 showings at the World Cup, when they finished in 10th place. The skipper is impressed by how the team has been shaping up in the build-up to the delayed World Cup.
“Our aim and vision is to compete as best we can and learn because we want to be counted among those top teams in the world. So we need to take this opportunity to learn and improve.
“We don’t feel we belong in that No 11 ranking spot we are in.
“We are underdogs going into this tournament, but I dare say we are going to surprise many people this time around,” she said.
Lock Booi, 37, and flyhalf Zenay Jordaan are set to make their third appearance at the World Cup. Tayla Kinsey and Asithandile Ntoyanto will play in their second tournaments.
“This is quite an achievement for me and I know I have to use my experience and everything I have learnt in the past two competitions to help the team do better,” Booi said.
“The team has some exciting young girls that played rugby and got excellent development from grassroots level. Their skill is way better than some of us older players who started playing rugby at varsity level.
“This is really a talented squad which has a lot of players hungry to make a name for themselves,” she said.
“I can confidently say we are well prepared because I believe we played enough Test games in the build-up to the tournament.
“We had the African Cup, we had the tour that was in Japan and we recently took on the Spanish team. I think the matches we played in the build-up show that we are making serious improvements as a team and we have been learning.
“We have to believe in ourselves and tell ourselves that the ladies (we are going to play against) are just like us; all that is needed is to be confident in ourselves and play our best game without any fear.
“We need to play according to our strengths.”
SA will kick off their tournament against France on October 8 and play Fiji a week later before they face England in their last game of Pool C on October 23. The Boks are targeting a victory against Fiji.