SCOTLAND WOMEN will play two Test matches in South Africa this Autumn at the City Park Sports Grounds in Athlone on Monday 30th September and Saturday 5th October 2019. These will be the first Test match for the Springbok Women on home soil in six years.
“We are really excited to take the Scotland Women squad over to South Africa. The Autumn Test series last year was the perfect platform to challenge the team ahead of the Six Nations,” said Gemma Fay, Head of Women and Girls for the SRU.
“These two Tests will help to push the squad and prepare them ahead of 2020 Six Nations and the Women’s Rugby World Cup qualification matches.
“South Africa currently sit at eleventh in the world rankings with Scotland one place behind so it should be two exciting matches in Athlone.”
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The Scotland W0men’s team are currently without a head coach after it was announced at the end of the recent Six Nations whitewash that Shade Munro is moving on to a new post with the FOSROC Scottish Rugby Academy, with his successor due to be named before this excursion to South Africa
South Africa women are currently positioned 11th in the official world rankings, one place ahead of Scotland. The sides have previously met on two occasions, back in 2010 when they played each other twice at Lasswade just outside Edinburgh, with the Springboks coming out on top (27-8 and 41-17) in both matches.
“This is fantastic news for our team and supporters, not only because we are facing one of the Women’s Six Nations teams, but also because we will be able to do so in front of our home crowd,” said Springbok Women’s coach Stanley Raubenheimer.
“Most of our games over the years have been abroad, so it will be special to experience the support from family, friends and SA’s die-hard rugby fans first hand when we take to the field.
“Scotland are a quality side who are regulars in the international arena. This will also mark their first visit to South Africa, which will inspire them to make a big statement.
“They may not have performed as well as they wanted to in the Six Nations, but their narrow 17-15 defeat against Wales shows that they are a capable team with talented players.
“We had a national women’s assessment camp in March, so we now have a solid base to work from,” he added. “There is obviously hard work ahead, but we are going to put the building blocks in place in the next few months to prepare ourselves for these matches.”
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