The Springbok Women have been at a training camp in Stellenbosch to prepare for the Rugby World Cup in England in August. File Picture
Rowan Callaghan
Head coach Swys de Bruin was happy with the intensity and conditioning the Springbok Women displayed during this week’s training camp in Stellenbosch that kick-started their preparations for the Rugby World Cup in England in August.
In fact, the coach likened one particular defence session to Super Rugby in terms of intensity – high praise indeed.
“Man, I’m excited. You know the intensity is there. The challenges we asked them, they all came back fitter, stronger,” De Bruin said.
He reserved special praise for the ability of the players to knuckle down and stick to the plans laid out for them over the festive season, as well as for conditioning coach Naasier Parker.
“It’s not so easy over the Christmas period – you know we all wanna be a bit lazy, which is fair, but really they worked hard.
“Over 90% of them reached the targets that we wanted to set them conditioning-wise, so coach Naas, from a conditioning side, brilliant work. I’m very happy.”
It seems like the Springbok Women have wasted little time in absorbing some of the lessons of last year’s WXV2 tournament in Cape Town where defensive lapses were evident.
Their approach to the opening camp of the year bodes well for an improved World Cup showing.
The influence of assistant coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt, the former teacher, Bok star and Junior Bok coach who is the first full-time female coach involved with a national team in SA Rugby ranks, no doubt has some part to play in that.
Johannes-Haupt, who represented the Springbok Women at the 2010 Rugby World Cup and played in 12 Tests before retiring in 2014, was still working as a teacher at Athlone High School until recently, but has now stepped away from the classroom to focus on her other passion, that of coaching rugby.
And De Bruin was quick to acknowledge the scrum and forwards coach’s contribution to the camp, in “building progression lines” and correcting mistakes – no doubt something she has plenty of experience with.
“Yesterday’s defence session indoors reminded me a bit of Super Rugby – the intensity, the way they communicated, very nice,” he said. “(It’s) a long road ahead, we realise where we are, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
De Bruin said they would be watching the local competition with keen interest while working on a lot of position specifics.
“So the next camp is in February in Pretoria, so they all play a bit now ... and it’s tough on them now but we’ve got to graft. We have to grind, we've got to put the hard yards in now if we want success later on.”
It’s a message that Johannes-Haupt had also stressed earlier in the week at the beginning of the camp.
“As the European teams will obviously get better, we also want to get better at what we do and we just wanna get sharper in executing what our plans are,” she said.
She must be especially proud of the ’90% pass rate’ so far, with sterner tests on the horizon.
Related Topics: