No 8 Aseza Hele scored a hat-trick as the Springbok Women employed directness and physicality for 80 minutes in attack to beat Brazil 66-6 in their opening Rugby World Cup game at Franklin’s Gardens in Northampton, England, on Sunday.
The team’s last group stage win was way back in 2010 against Wales.
The Brazil win put them in a good position in their group, which also includes Italy and France.
They are perhaps just one win away from reaching their first quarterfinal after having never emerged from the group stages.
From the kickoff, Swys de Bruin’s women showed that the Brazilian defence was in for a long afternoon.
Cindy Booi’s line-break from the halfway line after just seconds into the game pioneered the Boks’ dominance, though she was taken down inside the 22m.
Scrumhalf Nadine Roos capitalised on the Boks’ front-foot ball and scored their first try of the day after Hele picked up a loose ball and offloaded to her to score under the posts.
It was then the operation “let’s camp in their 22m” approach from the Bok women.
Roos was lightning fast behind each ruck in distributing the ball to her forwards.
She used the big structure of blondes Hele and Aphiwe Ngwevu cleverly to wreak havoc on the Brazilians, who spent much time going backwards.
They could not contain the powerhouse, Hele. With each carry, Hele would burst through the gain line with ease.
She scored the Boks’ second try of the afternoon, and in that she took four Brazilian defenders with her over the line.
Raquel Kochhann converted a penalty to get the South Americans on the scoreboard.
But the Bok women made the Brazilians defend wave after wave of carries, and the dam wall eventually broke with Hele barging over for her second try of the match in a similar fashion to her first.
Some slick hands and pure pace from Ayanda Malinga saw SA cross the line for their fourth try to take a 26-3 lead to the dressing room.
De Bruin’s women picked up from where they left off in the first stanza.
The electric-paced Roos produced a moment of magic on the counterattack, starting from just outside her own 22m, when she beat two defenders before chipping in behind the defence.
Byrhandre Dolf gathered and offloaded to the KwaDwesi-born Hele, who scored her third.
From there, it was one-way traffic for the Boks and the start of the Libbie Janse van Rensburg show.
The Blue Bulls Daisies star scored two tries within five minutes, the first one in close range and the second from a Boks defence to attack transition.
After being awarded a penalty, Kochhann thumped it over from 40m out for Brazil.
But with 19 minutes until the sound of the hooter, Border women’s centre Ngwevu, who troubled the Brazilian backline, finally went over for yet another Bok try.
Malinga scored her brace in the dying minutes of the game and Lerato Makua finished the try-scoring party and total onslaught.
Daily Dispatch
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