Kenya Women have earned continental and international acclaim following their second World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 Cup title, cleaning up fellow cup finalists South Africa to emphatically claim their dues at the Athlone Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday, 8 March, 2025.
The African silver medalists rose to the challenge in a tough Cup final, beating hosts the Springbok Women’s Sevens team on Saturday to ring up back-to-back titles in the space of two weeks, and finish top of the Challenger Series ahead of the third leg of this season’s HSBC Sevens qualifier tournaments.
The Challenger series has begun with Kenya top of the pile in Cape Town on the first weekend, 1 to 2 March; and the second weekend, 7 to 8 March; with the top-ranked eight women’s teams now progressing to the third round at the Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Poland, from 11 to 12 April.
The four women’s teams with the most cumulative points gained across the three Challenger rounds following Krakow will then qualify for the HSBC SVNS playoff in Los Angeles on 3 and 4 May, where they will face the bottom-four ranked teams from HSBC SVNS 2025 in a high-stakes promotion and relegation tournament, with four coveted World Series places up for grabs.
For South Africa, losing to Kenya in Saturday’s final was a massive disappointment, but Springbok Women’s Sevens coach Renfred Dazel said they are still on track for their 2025 ambition – to qualify for next season’s HSBC SVNS.
The Bok Women Sevens won both their pool games on Friday and had to work hard for victory in the semi-final against Czechia on Saturday, before going down by 17-0 to Kenya in the final.
South Africa lie second on the log ahead of the Poland finale and, according to Dazel, the Boks are determined to qualify for the HSBC SVNS playoffs in Los Angeles in May.
“It was a poor performance in the final and to against lose to Kenya, was disappointing,” said Dazel. “We did not play well at all; we made at least six handling errors and all of those were in attacking positions.”
“To add to that, we had four yellow cards in the semi-final against Czechia and lost Zintle Mpupha to suspension. So it was not our best day, but the fact that we improved our standing despite that, is a positive.”
Springbok Women’s Sevens Coach, Renfred Dazel
Dazel said that the performances of the last two weekends were fruitful as he blooded two new players at this level and a few less experienced squad members got valuable game time. “Those are all wins for me and the group will benefit from that,” he said.
“We are losing four senior players who will join the Springbok Women training camp and will not be available for the trip to Poland, but we will also welcome Simamkele Namba back from injury, as well as Kyla de Vries, who was very close to selection for this week.”
Kenya (40 points), South Africa (34), Argentina (30) and Colombia (30) are the front runners after the two tournaments hosted in South Africa, while Nadine Roos topped the points scoring list after the two tournaments with 74 points.
South Africa Results for Day 2 of Round 2 of the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 at the Athlone Stadium on Saturday, 8 March, 2025
Semi Final 1: South Africa 21 – 15 Czechia
Semi Final 2: Kenya 12 – 5 Colombia
Silver Medal Match: Czechia 5 – 35 Colombia
Cup Final: Kenya 17 – 0 South Africa
South Africa Results for Day 1 of Round 2 on Friday, 7 March, 2025
South Africa 45 – 5 Samoa
South Africa 43 – 0 Poland
Round 1 Day 2 Springbok Women’s Results on Sunday, 2 March, 2025
Semi Final 1: Argentina 10 – 5 Colombia
Semi Final 2: South Africa 15 – 19 Kenya
Silver Medal Match: South Africa 29 – 9 Colombia
Cup Final: Kenya 17 – 12 Argentina
Round 1 Day 1 Springbok Women’s Results on Saturday, 1 March, 2025
South Africa 36 – 0 Hong Kong China
South Africa 26 – 0 Czechia
Springbok Women Sevens Squad for the Second Round of the Challenger 2025 Tournament
#1 Leigh Fortuin
#4 Zintle Mpupha
#6 Felicia Jacobs
#7 Maria Tshiremba
#8 Kayla Swarts
#9 Nadine Roos
#10 Mathrin Simmers (captain)
#13 Kemisetso Baloyi
#16 Shiniqwa Lamprecht
#23 Ayanda Malinga
#27 Alicia Willemse
#29 Rights Mkhari
Original Copy: SA Rugby Communications, with editing by gsport
Main Photo Caption: Kenya Women mark their repeat winning moment. The African silver medalists have earned acclaim following their second World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025 Cup title, cleaning up South Africa to top the logs t the Athlone Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday, 8 March, 2025. Photos: World Rugby / Zach Franzen Photo
Photo 2 Caption: South Africa worked hard to beat Czechia 21-15 in the first semi-final, to qualify for Saturday’s final. Photos: World Rugby / Travis Prior
Photo 3 Caption: Kenya had comfortably qualified for the final, beating eventual bronze medalists Colombia 12-5. Photos: World Rugby / Travis Prior
