Springbok Women's Sevens coach, Paul Delport, have most of his contracted Imbokodos* in the team, which will be captained by Zintle Mpupha, availble and will also include athletics convert, Alyssa Conley. The former Olympic sprinter has made the transition to rugby earlier in the year and will play her first match this weekend.
The Imbokodos are preparing for next month's Rugby Africa Olympic Qualifiers in Monastir, Tunisia during the weekend of 12-13 October, where a top two finish will also keep them in the hunt to qualify for the HSBC World Rugby Women's Sevens Series in 2020.
Delport said he is looking at intensity and execution from the team: "We are looking at our own performances and standards in Knysna. We need to tick a number of boxes, as we have not played in a while and will be mindful of that.
“There are a number of new faces and we are all excited to see Alyssa go, but the mindset will pretty much be on the team's performance and how we combine and implement our attack and defence,” said Delport.
The Imbokodo fixtures for Saturday are:
11h00: v Busy Bees
13h20: SWD EaGirls
17h00: v EP Queens
Note: Imbokodo has been adopted as the official nickname of the Springbok Women’s Sevens team. Imbokodo is taken from the Zulu phrase “Wathint’ abafazi wanthint’ imbokodo” which translates as “You strike a woman, you strike a rock”, and represents the resilience and courage shown by women in general, and the Springbok Women’s Sevens as they take on the world’s best teams.