The Springbok Women’s Sevens side were kept scoreless in two heavy defeats to defending series champions Australia and Ireland in their opening fixtures at the Cape Town Sevens on Friday.

After finishing as losing finalists in the Dubai Invitational tournament last weekend, the Imbokodo failed to build on their promising performances in the desert, conceding a total of 76 points on day one in Cape Town.

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The hosts were always going to up against it when they took on Australia in their opening fixture and the gulf between the two teams was ruthlessly exploited in a 52-0 loss for the home side.

Australia ran in a total of eight tries against the Springbok Women, who are under the interim coaching of Renfred Dazel.

While the Bok Women were more competitive against Ireland, they were simply outplayed in the 24-0 victory for the Irish.

“We did some good things in both games and that is encouraging for tomorrow’s match against Spain,” said Dazel after the clash against Ireland.

“We managed to put both those sides under pressure in the opening minutes of each game, but then we fell away as they lifted the intensity, and we battled to counter that.

“It was not unexpected though, as Australia are the top team in the world and Ireland compete in the top tier as well, so I am not too despondent after the first day.”

Springbok Women’s Sevens captain Nadine Roos also reflected in the positives they took from the two defeats.

“We managed to create good opportunities, but we did not take any of them and that was a bit disappointing,” said Roos.

“But the fact remains that we did create opportunities against teams that are in the top tier, so we need to finish those tomorrow if we want to have a better day two.”

The Springbok Women’s Sevens team will take on Spain in their final pool fixture at 1.25pm on Saturday afternoon.

Photo: Ziyaad Douglas/Gallo Images