South Africa’s women’s rugby team still need to face France in the World Cup group stage this weekend, but have already qualified for the quarterfinals and say they don’t care who they face in the final eight.
The team made history by reaching their first-ever World Cup knockout stage when they beat Brazil and Italy in group play, and will hope to get one over the statistically stronger French side on Sunday in Northampton.
Regardless of that result, they’ll go into the quarters, against either New Zealand or Ireland, with enthusiasm, said assistant coach Laurian Johannes-Haupt on the SA Rugby website: “That is a week from now, but we certainly don’t mind who we play in the quarters as the nature of the competition is that it gets tougher the further you progress.
“We want to play the best, in this case we are playing the number four [France] and then a week later the number three or five in the world. That is what we came for.”
As for the France clash this weekend, Johannes-Haupt said they’d be making a few tactical and personnel changes from the side that beat Italy: “We want to play against them with a particular tactic in mind, so the team will be tweaked accordingly.
“It will be silly to move away from our direct and physical approach that worked so well in recent months, but we will freshen up the squad after three weeks on tour.
“The nice thing is that everyone is keen to go out and prove our performances are sustainable and that the massive support we get from back home is justified and celebrated.”
