Asisipho Plaatjies will lead South Africa’s Women’s Sevens Rugby team at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, as announced by SARU on Thursday, 21 July 2022.
was named captain of the South Africa Women’s Sevens team for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Thursday, 21 July 2022.
The Women Boks will participate in the Rugby Sevens programme as part of Team South Africa.
Meanwhile, Springbok Women’s Sevens head coach Paul Delport has named six new caps in his squad for the Birmingham showpiece, with Plaatjies set to lead the team for the first time.
The 26-year-old University of Fort Hare student in Public Administration is enjoying a stellar year on the rugby field. She made her debut for the team in May at the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series event in Toulouse and three weeks later scored the winning try for Border Ladies in the final of the Women’s Premier Division against DHL Western Province in Cape Town.
Mathrin Simmers and Unathi Mali are the only two survivors from the 2018 tournament, where the women’s competition for Rugby Sevens was introduced for the first time.
Liske Lategan, Donelle Snyders and Anacadia Minnaar also traveled to Toulouse, while Felicia Jacobs is a capped Springbok Women international with three Tests appearances to her name.
The inclusion of the uncapped Kemiketso Baloyi, Nontuthoko Shongwe and Kyla de Vries is a credit to the University of Pretoria’s rugby programme, while Luleka Tyibilka was in the enlarged training squad when the sevens programme was halted when COVID struck in 2019.
Zandile Masuku, who had a stint playing club rugby in Spain, will also make a first appearance for her country in this format.
Delport said that although the squad lack experience and game time, they have worked hard to be ready for this opportunity: “We are going into this tournament with realistic expectations. This is going to be a huge learning curve for us, but we will be better for it. We have set out targets for the tournament and we will judge ourselves by those.”
South Africa Women’s Team:
Unathi Mali
Asisipho Plaatjies (c)
Kemiketso Baloyi
Donelle Snyders
Luleka Tyibilika
Anacadia Minnaar
Nontuthoko Shongwe
Kyla de Vries
Felicia Jacobs
Mathrin Simmers
Zandile Masuku
Liske Lategan
Bianca Augustyn
Management:
Paul Delport (head coach), Sandile Ngcobo (assistant coach), Reagan Cele (physiotherapist), Michele van Rooyen (analyst), Thandiswa Nxomani (team manager).
Photo 1 Caption: Asisipho Plaatjies will lead South Africa’s Women’s Sevens Rugby team at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, as announced by SARU on Thursday, 21 July 2022. Photo: WomenBoks (Twitter)
With editing by gsport
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