History will be made next weekend when the Springbok Women’s Rugby team will face Samoa in Hermanus on Saturday 7 October.
The game that forms part of the national women’s rugby team’s warm up campaign for the WXV tournament in October will take place at Hermanus High School’s rugby field.
Interim head coach Louis Koen reported that the Springbok Women played matches against the Kenya Lionesses, San Clemente Rhinos and the Barbarians in the space of a week. He added that these games gave the coaching staff a clear vision on their approach to their WXV opponents, Scotland, Italy and Samoa.
Next Saturday’s match between the SA Women’s Rugby team and Samoa will not be the first time that a national team runs out on the high school’s field – the Springbok team under the leadership of captain Siya Kolisi spent a number of days in July 2022 training on the field in preparation for their match against Wales in the three-match series.
The SA Women’s Blitsbokke are also no strangers to the fields at Hermanus High, where they have competed numerous times in the annual Women’s Sevens Rugby Tournament.
Michelle Bosch, the Boland Women’s rugby team manager who organises the annual Women’s Sevens Rugby Tournament along with Boland Women’s Rugby coach Thomas Chowles, said hosting the match between the SA Women’s Rugby Team and Samoa is a huge honour and privilege.
Chowles added the successful hosting of this important test match by Walker Bay Women’s Rugby Club and Boland Women’s Rugby may lead to the possibility of hosting more such important rugby games in Hermanus in future.
“This is the first time an international rugby test match is hosted in the Boland and in Hermanus. We hope that this will further promote women’s rugby.”
The Springbok Women vs Samoa match kicks off at 16:30 on the 7th. It will be preceded by a match between the Walker Bay Women’s Rugby Club vs Swellendam.
“A number of u-13 girls rugby teams from different schools will also play a few games,” Chowles stated. “All the action kicks off at 10:00 and entry is completely free.”
After their match against Samoa in Hermanus, the Springbok Women will face Scotland (13 October, Stellenbosch), Italy (20 October, Cape Town) and Samoa (27 October, Cape Town) in WXV.
The squad of 30 players to assemble in Cape Town next Sunday will be announced later this week. It is not known yet whether Hermanus local Aseza “Blommie” Hele, who has donned the green and gold for both the national women’s rugby team and the Blitsbokkies on numerous occasions, will be part of this team.
