Springbok women’s Sevens coach Paul Delport was left exasperated after his side’s 21-19 loss to China in their Rugby World Cup (RWC) Sevens 13th/14th place playoff match on Sunday.

His frustration stemmed from the fact that the Imbokodo have no women’s Sevens programme in place and none of his players is contracted as a Sevens player by the South Africa Rugby Union (Saru).

He believes financial support from the higher powers in South African rugby would close the gap between the Imbokodo and the teams above them.

“If we’re not going to put a full-time programme together there’s no point. That’s up to Saru to find us some budget. We’ve got talented enough players but we have no worthwhile systems in place. Until that happens it’s always going to be this position,” said Delport after his side’s loss to China.

The Bok Sevens women lost three of their four matches at the RWC Sevens – against France (29-0), Japan (14-12) and China (21-19) – however, their opposition all have full-time Sevens programmes with contracted players.

“If you look at us – where we are with our programme at the moment – we have no business playing against the top eight teams in the world. The ladies put a really good shift in there,” said Delport

“The last time we came here, we copped it in every game we played. Whereas in two of our three losses, we were very, very competitive against full-time programmes with massive budgets – where we have nothing. It’s testament to the ladies’ character and to their ability as rugby players and also how quickly they’ve adapted.”

‘External factors’

The Springbok women’s Sevens side put in a lung-busting performance against China in their final match, as both teams scored three tries apiece. China snatched the win with one more successful conversion than the hosts.

“We had ample opportunities and we’re better than that performance we delivered. We shouldn’t let external factors control the game. We put ourselves in that position today. We had a really good plan that we didn’t execute. We should have put this team away,” said Delport.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Imbokodo embrace underdog tag for Rugby World Cup Sevens”

Reflecting on Imbokodo’s weekend, Delport took confidence from the side’s performances despite only finishing with one win.

“I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised. I thought we would be at a lower level than we have been. In saying that, there’s disappointment because the ladies put themselves in a position to win. Before we hadn’t really done that.

Coach Paul Delport at a South Africa women’s Sevens training session in Cape Town on 6 September 2022. (Photo: Grant Pitcher / Gallo Images)

“Japan is a really good outfit – they qualified for the World Series. But there again, we had a good opportunity, two on one at the end, we didn’t take it. We had a good plan that the ladies executed.”

Imbokodo had a convincing 27-0 win over Colombia on Saturday, which gave the home crowd something to cheer for.

“Yesterday [gave us] really good confidence [against Colombia]. Colombia is one of the poorest team’s here. What was positive there for us, as management, we generally drop our level to the weaker teams. And there we actually played to our standards, which was good,” he said.

“And then today was just disappointing because we should have rolled this team (China).”

Fifteens vs Sevens

The Bok women played in a Sevens Challenger Series in Chile last month. The winners of the tournament, Japan, qualified for the World Series. South Africa finished ninth.

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However, Delport did not have his full complement of players available for the crucial tournament, with many playing for the Springbok women’s 15s side at the time.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Paul Delport prepares to ‘unleash the beast’ with Imbokodo at Rugby World Cup Sevens”

“We played at the Challenger Series [in Chile last month]. You look at a team like Papua New Guinea, they have 14 contracted Sevens players, we have zero. That just puts it into perspective. Until we do what needs to be done, we’re never going to be able to be competitive against these top teams,” he said.

“This is what we need to look at going forward – Sevens can play 15s, it’s not the other way around. When I lose my players and they come back, it takes them three or four months to get them back. We need to find a way to look at how we’re going to do things, but in order for us to do well in Sevens we need to spend time playing Sevens.” DM