Ken Borland

Springbok women's coach Lawrence Sephaka

Former Springbok prop Lawrence Sephaka is the man responsible for gathering South Africa’s women’s rugby forces for a World Cup challenge just five weeks from now, and the coach yesterday pronounced himself happy with preparations as his team trained at the High Performance Centre at the University of Pretoria.

“There’s excitement all round, the players are all on a high and things are going good. It’s important to me that we keep on improving, because we have higher places to get to, and this is a great bunch of girls, very funny and sociable. There’s a great camaraderie,” Sephaka told The Pretoria News yesterday.

South Africa have been drawn with big guns Australia and hosts France, as well as Wales, in the World Cup, which starts on August 1, but Sephaka is more concerned with continuing the process of improvement that has been so apparent with the women’s Springboks, rather than individual matches.

“We are a rugby-loving nation and it’s worrying that we are only ranked 10^th in the world. We’re a proud nation so we want to improve on that, but we need to follow the steps to get there, otherwise we could miss some things and stumble. So we’re not going to focus on individual games, but rather on our implementation. That will determine how we grow,” Sephaka said.

The owner of 24 Springbok caps said South Africa’s success at the World Cup would be down to quality set-pieces and physicality.

“We pride ourselves on our set-pieces because that will give us good ball to play from. If we don’t get good ball then we can’t strike through our backs and I believe we have a pretty talented backline. But we need to put them on the front foot. We need to take whatever pressure we’re under and also convert our chances,” Sephaka said.

“But if we cut out physicality from our game then we’ll also have a problem. We must embrace it and all these girls love that challenge, they love collisions, they live for it. I can give them targets and challenges and they just want to go and take out players. It gives them confidence.

“They love contact, but we also need to play smart when we can and there are some special things in our game plan too.”

Springbok captain Mandisa Williams

Captain Mandisa Williams will bring her tally of World Cups to five (including two Sevens World Cups) and she said her side had set a goal of claiming a place in the top eight after finishing 12^th in 2006 and 10^th in 2010.

“We’re focusing on getting to the top eight, which we’ve never made before. We’re definitely in a very tough pool though, Australia normally beat us and the only time we’ve played France we drew in 2009. But we’re playing on their home grounds so that will be very tough. We need to stay composed and stick to our structures,” Williams said.

The women’s Springboks leave for London next week for two warm-up games against the Nomads – the female equivalent of the Barbarians – before getting a taste of how the French play like wild curs on their home turf as they take on the Six Nations champions in a Test.

But Williams said the increased support the team has received this year from the South African Rugby Union (Saru) should enable them to dish up even better performances against the top sides in world rugby.

“In the last year we’ve been shown a lot of support. Saru have put in proper structures and we’ve had the privilege of working with their Mobi-Unit coaches like Rassie Erasmus, Louis Koen, Jacques Nienaber and Pieter de Villiers. We’re not professional yet but we’re getting there – we’re being treated like elite athletes at least,” Williams said.

There is a wealth of experience in this Springbok women’s side, with Lorinda Brown, Phumeza Gadu, Zenay Jordaan, Fundiswa Plaatjie, Ziyanda Tywaleni, Nolusindiso Booi, Nomathamsanqa Faleni, Portia Jonga, Lamla Momoti and Williams all having been mourners at previous World Cups, but there is also exciting talent coming through to reflect the strides women’s rugby is making in South Africa.

Pat Lambie returns at fullback while prop Werner Kruger and wing Bjorn Basson come on to the bench in the only changes to South Africa’s side for the second Test against England, Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer announced on Wednesday.

Lambie, who came on for the second half of South Africa’s 22-17 first Test win over England in Durban, replaces the injured Zane Kirchner. The Sharks utility back was the starting fullback during the Springboks’ World Cup campaign last year.

Kruger is a tighthead prop who comes in for Coenie Oosthuizen, who can play on both sides of the scrum but suffered a neck injury last weekend that will keep him out of the rest of the series.

Dean Greyling, a similarly versatile front-ranker, was called into the squad this week, but Meyer told a news conference in Johannesburg on Wednesday that specialist Kruger had been brought into the 22 because starting tighthead Jannie du Plessis is being managed for a calf injury.

“Greyling is a very good impact player and can play both sides, but Jannie has a slight injury so we wanted specialist cover for him,” Meyer said.

The Springbok coach said he was not expecting to lose anything with Lambie replacing Kirchner.

“Pat’s a great player and still very young – people forget he’s just 21. He brings something different, more attacking options, and he had a superb second half last week. In training, he’s shown some brilliant touches in attack.

“Zane is a very good tactical kicker, but I’ve been meeting with Pat, who is also a great kicker, but I want him to improve his tactical kicking. He’s very good under the high ball and very good defensively even though he’s not very big, so we won’t lose much and I’m very confident he will do well,” Meyer said.

“I wanted to keep some continuity in the team because they played reasonably well last week and there are a lot of youngsters who will now know the game plan better,” Meyer said in explaining his decision to make just one injury-enforced change to the starting line-up.

Basson, who takes Lambie’s place on the bench, has claimed six test caps since making his debut in 2010 and his strength is in competing for the ball in the air.

Team – 15-Pat Lambie, 14-JP Pietersen, 13-Jean de Villiers, 12-Francois Steyn, 11-Bryan Habana, 10-Morne Steyn, 9-Francois Hougaard, 8-Pierre Spies, 7-Willem Alberts, 6-Marcell Coetzee, 5-Juandre Kruger, 4-Eben Etzebeth, 3-Jannie du Plessis, 2-Bismarck du Plessis, 1-Tendai Mtawarira. Bench: 16-Adriaan Strauss, 17-Werner Kruger, 18-Flip van der Merwe, 19-Keegan Daniel, 20-Ruan Pienaar, 21-Wynand Olivier, 22-Bjorn Basson.

Prop Coenie Oosthuizen’s injury-enforced absence from the rest of the Test series against England is a major blow for the Springboks, forwards coach Johann van Graan said on Tuesday.

Oosthuizen has a “mildly bulging disc in his neck”, according to South Africa team doctor Craig Roberts, and will be out of action for between two and three months as the Springboks follow a conservative treatment approach.

“Coenie is still a young player and has a long career ahead of him and needs to be managed appropriately. We will follow a conservative approach with him,” Roberts said.

The 23-year-old Oosthuizen made his debut off the bench in the first Test against England in Durban, but Van Graan said he had made an impressive impact.

“He showed in the first Test what he can do and his injury is a big loss for us, especially since he can play both tighthead and loosehead,” Van Graan told reporters in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

Oosthuizen is also a major threat with ball in hand, as Springbok tighthead Jannie du Plessis pointed out.

“Coenie had two brilliant scrums at tighthead but the real difference he made was in carrying the ball, it’s no secret he’s one of the best in the world at that. He always puts you on the front foot,” Du Plessis said.

While the Springbok ball-carriers dominated England and the advantage line in the second half of the first Test, Du Plessis said the forwards had placed too much pressure on scrumhalf Francois Hougaard on their own ball in the first half, by not offering him enough protection at the breakdowns.

“It’s great to play in a pack where all eight players want to do well, but we weren’t clinical enough at the breakdown. We didn’t hold on to the ball well enough and England had good stealers, especially at second or third phase where we were a bit light on cleaners.

“The longer you keep the ball, the more pressure you can exert on the opposition and we improved in the second half and played better rugby as a result,” Du Plessis said.

While the Springboks expect an even better performance from the England pack in Saturday’s second Test in Johannesburg, an area where the home team is more than likely going to be better is goalkicking. Sharpshooting flyhalf Morne Steyn struggled with the swirling wind inside the King’s Park Stadium in Durban and missed two conversions and a penalty.

“My kicking was not up to standard. The conditions were quite tough, but a kicker must be prepared for all conditions. In a place like Durban, the ball doesn’t travel as you’d like and I allowed too much for the wind. But it should be better at altitude and Ellis Park is closer to Loftus [Steyn’s home ground with the Bulls], so I should be more at home this weekend,” Steyn said.

Van Graan also praised a second debutant, lock Juandre Kruger, for a top-class all-round display.

“Juandre did really well in his first Test, he had a lot of responsibility – organising the calls on our own ball and when we contested, as well as the kick-offs. We only lost three out of 15 balls, so the lineout went well considering we had personnel from different teams,” Van Graan said.