Springbok Women brushed aside by clinical Wales in WXV opener
The Springbok Women suffered an opening 50-19 WXV defeat to a dominant Wales side at Cardiff Arms Park.
South Africa's Springbok Women endured a tough opening to their WXV Global Series campaign with a 50-19 loss to Wales at Cardiff Arms Park on Friday evening. The home team stormed ahead in the first half, scoring six tries before halftime to establish a 38-5 lead over the Springboks. Defensive errors and disciplinary issues, including two yellow cards and a sin-binning that turned into a red card for lock Danelle Lochner, added to South Africa's woes.
Wales scored twice inside the first ten minutes, with outside centre Courtney Keight and prop Sisilia Tuipulotu crossing the try line. South Africa managed to halt the momentum briefly when scrumhalf Felicia Jacobs scored after a strong scrum, but Wales quickly regained control. In the first half, Seren Lockwood, Maisie Davies, Kelsey Jones, and Lisa Neumann all found the try line, leaving Wales trailing by 33 points at the break.
Tuipulotu added another try just seconds into the second half, extending Wales's advantage to 45-5. Despite the significant deficit, South Africa showed more aggression after the restart, with winger Maria Tshiremba and outside centre Maceala Samboya scoring tries. However, Wales sealed the victory with captain Alex Callender's try, reaching eight tries in total.
South Africa will now need to regroup before facing Italy in their second fixture on Saturday. Wales scored tries through Courtney Keight, Sisilia Tuipulotu (2), Seren Lockwood, Maisie Davies, Kelsey Jones, Lisa Neumann, and Alex Callender, with Freya Bell converting five of them. The Springbok Women managed to score tries from Felicia Jacobs, Maria Tshiremba, and Maceala Samboya, with Byrhandré Dolf contributing two conversions.
Written by urgent.news from IOL's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
