Laurian Johannes-Haupt Springbok Women assistant coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt says they are happy with the first practice against France on Tuesday. Photo: SA Rugby
Image: SA Rugby
The Springbok Women ticked another box on their way to the 2025 Rugby World Cup after completing a training session against the French Women in Marcoussis.
It looks like performance coach Swys de Bruin and his assistants are following the path of the Springboks by exploring every possible avenue available to them to give the team the best preparation ahead of the tournament in August and September in England.
South Africa will face Spain in a one-off Test next Saturday but will have another training session with England’s Under-20 and Under-23 Women.
Assistant coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt says the squad will benefit greatly from the exposure against the French, and they are looking forward to more sessions as they prepare for the match in Alicante.
“They are a very competitive side and ranked high in the world,” Johannes-Haupt said, about the hit-out with the French.
“They are well underway in their Women’s Six Nations campaign while we are only starting our season, so we expected to have issues with the pace and intensity of the sessions, but we did not and that was a massive plus to the coaches, as it pointed to a positive trajectory for the squad.
“We had a unit session against them where we could do our set piece, scrums and line-outs, and some starter moves by the backline. We also went through some game-like scenarios, and the ladies did well.”
According to Johannes-Haupt, they met their objectives against the French after using 29 players in the session. Now, it’s on to the challenge of England on Saturday, where they will put in the final preparation ahead of the Spanish duel.
Players who did not feature too much against France will be given an extended run against the English youngsters.
“We couldn’t expose everybody in the session against the French to give them the full amount of time we want them to have. Going into the England game, we can give more girls the time to stamp their authority and give them a nice game.”
The Bok Women will travel to Spain this Sunday, where they will put in the final touches for the highly anticipated clash against their hosts.