The Junior Springbok Women will pit themselves play against Tunisia, Uganda and the Rhino Rugby U20 team in three matches in the international series at Paul Roos Gymnasium’s Markötter Stadium.

The provincial competition – which will be hosted at Queens High School – is to maintain a healthy pathway from junior to senior level for the country’s top women’s players says Lynne Cantwell, SA Rugby’s High-Performance Manager for Women’s Rugby.

“We’ve been working on creating this pathway for a long time to assist our girls to make the step up from junior to senior level, and it’s great that we can once again host the U20 week followed by international competition,” said Cantwell.

“We’ve already had success, with Mary Zulu, Byrhandré Dolf, Vainah Ubisi and Shiniqwa Lamprecht making the step up from U20 to senior international level, and we’re hoping to unearth a few more in the coming weeks.

“The senior national coaches will keep a keen eye on these competitions as it’s crucial for the girls to have the opportunity to possibly even stake a claim for Rugby World Cup 2025 in England, as well as for the Springbok Women’s Sevens team, who are now in a rebuilding phase.

“We are therefore very grateful to be in a partnership with Rhino Rugby to help fund the extra fixtures, so that we can have a four-team competition, similar to the U18 International Series for boys.”

Lynne Cantwell.

Cantwell said there was plenty of talent around the country, and that it was important to provide these girls with an opportunity to bridge the gap from Under-18 to senior level, which is why the U20 provincial competition is held during the school holidays.

“We still only have 12 provincial teams competing, but we’re hoping to grow that in the future,” said Cantwell.

“It’s also at the same time as WXV 2, as we want to create an aspirational connection and platform from the juniors to senior level. All the provincial teams will attend the second round of WXV, when the Springbok Women play Australia, and we’d also like to take our national senior team to support the Under-20s.”

The Junior Springbok Women’s team will be coached by Flash Malinga, Eddie Myners, Mandisa Williams and Zenay Jordaan.

The Under-20 Women’s tournament kicks off at 09h00 on Saturday morning at Queens High School with all the games scheduled to finish in time for the Carling Currie Cup final, as all the players will attend the big clash between the Fidelity ADT Lions and Hollywoodbets Sharks XV at Emirates Airline Park, from 16h00.

U20 Provincial Competition – first round fixtures (21 September):

09h00: Western Province vs Valke (A-field)
09h00: Lions vs Boland (B-field)
10h30: Bulls vs Free State (A-field)
10h30: Limpopo vs Sharks (B-field)
12h00: Eastern Province vs Griquas (A-field)
12h00: Border vs SWD (B-field)

U20 Women’s Africa Series fixtures (all matches at Markötter Stadium in Stellenbosch):

Monday, 30 September 2024
10h00: Rhino Rugby vs Tunisia
12h00: Junior Springbok Women vs Uganda

Friday, 4 October 2024
10h00: Rhino Rugby vs Uganda
12h00: Junior Springbok Women vs Tunisia

Tuesday, 8 October 2024
10h00: Uganda vs Tunisia
12h00: Junior Springbok Women vs Rhino Rugby