SA Select Women finish third in Dubai Invitational
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Loading...The SA Select Women powered their way to an encouraging third-place finish at the season-opening Emirates Airlines Dubai Invitational Sevens tournament after defeating Wales Women’s National and the Canada Maple Leafs at the 7he Sevens Stadium.
The team started the second day of the tournament strongly as they registered a 12-5 victory against Wales in the Cup quarter-final, thanks to two tries compliments of speedster Phumeza Gadu to only one by the opposition.
This booked the South Africans a place in the Cup semi-final against the in-form France Development Women, who cruised through to the top-four unbeaten and with an impressive 175 points in their four matches.
The French side proved too good for the SA Select Women, as they registered a 17-7 victory to deny Renfred Dazel’s team a place in the final.
This result earned the SA Select Women a place in the third place-playoff against the Canada Maple Leafs, who defeated them 19-7 in the opening match of the tournament on Thursday.
However, this time the South Africans were determined to avoid a similar result in their final match of the tournament, and delivered a fine performance for a 26-19 victory in a nail-biting encounter.
Dazel was satisfied with the result and said there were several positives they could take from the tournament.
“I am very pleased with the progress the team has made and I think our third place finish was a big positive given the high quality of the teams we faced such as France, Wales and Canada,” said Dazel.
“The competition was tough, with some of the teams featuring three or four players that have played at the highest level on the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, which makes the result particularly encouraging.”
Dazel was also pleased with the quality of the performances delivered by debutante Chané Stadler, and the other newcomers Lamla Momoti and Nomsa Mokwai, who joined the squad only last week.
“We came to Dubai with three new players and they performed very well,” said Dazel.
“Chané, in particular, combined well with Zenay (Jordaan), and it looked as though they had played together for years. So there are several positives we can take from this tournament.”
SA Select Women’s Emirates Airlines Dubai Sevens day-two results:
SA Select 12 Wales Women’s National 5 (Cup quarter-final)
France Development Women 17 SA Select 7 (Cup semi-final)
SA Select 26 Canada Maple Leafs 19 (third place-playoff)
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