A giant has awoken for women in South African rugby, says Springbok coach De Bruin

Springbok Women coach Swys de Bruin believes “a giant has awoken for women in South African rugby” after his team’s inspired performances at the Rugby World Cup in England.

Although the Boks ultimately went down to the mighty Black Ferns in their quarterfinal on Saturday at Sandy Park in Exeter, De Bruin’s charges were monumental during the competition.

Glass ceilings were shattered over the last month, including winning a first-ever match at the Rugby World Cup against Brazil (66-6) before following it up with a victory over higher-ranked Italy (29-24) to book a maiden place in the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals.

And if that wasn’t enough, they surprised friend and foe with a Herculean first-half display against the four-times champions by holding the New Zealanders to 10-10 at halftime.

Although though the Black Ferns unleashed a two-try blitz after the halftime break, the Boks showed their grit and determination to come back again and score three tries in the match - the only team to do so against the Kiwis in the competition.

"I'm so proud. Look at our girls, look at the passion. They made a difference for millions of girls in South Africa. They are role models. There are so many trials and tribulations. I'm so thankful,” De Bruin said.

“Ireland got nought against them [New Zealand], other teams couldn't score tries. Every time you raise the bar they can go higher. It's amazing what they can do. 

“I said in 2017 we were not good enough. In 2022 we couldn't win a game. Now we get a chance in a quarter-final and score three tries. I think a giant has awoken for women in South African rugby."

De Bruin’s innovative coaching drills on the training ground - much like his Bok men’s counterpart Rassie Erasmus - certainly paid off as they caught the Black Ferns off guard particularly in the first half, but the opposition’s experience ultimately came to the fore in the second.

“A lot of our plans worked in the first half. They didn't expect the 15-man maul or the set-ups next to the scrum,” he said.

“But then, in the second half - my coaches were still on the way up - they [New Zealand] scored two tries so we will need to see what happened there. Apparently it was kick-off-receive - we just lost it. 

"Our girls are not used to playing at this pace and pressure. We ran a bit out of steam, but we kept fighting, fighting, fighting.”

De Bruyn has called for the enlargement of tournaments such as the Pacific Four, which features New Zealand, Australia, Canada and USA, for his team to get greater exposure as they showed at this World Cup they are worthy of fighting it out with the "big dogs."

“We need more competitive games because I honestly believe if we get that, we'll be much more of a threat. If we can have that with our high performance system, that'll be the super ingredients for growth,” he said.

“There's a couple of teams knocking on the door; we’re knocking the hardest at the moment. 
The fact that we could push them [New Zealand] to a 10-all draw at half-time, the minnows are good enough now. Opportunity is everything. We need games, we need tough games, more of them.”