Captain Booi confident as Springbok Women gear up for high-stakes showdown

That was the word from South Africa's captain Nolusindiso Booi a day before the final match of the Rugby Africa Women's Cup in Madagascar against the home nation at Stade Makis in Antananarivo.

Following Sunday's match, the overall winner will not only lift the trophy as Africa's best team, but will also represent the continent at next year's Rugby World Cup in England and book their spot at WXV2, to be played in Cape Town in September and October.

"We know what we are playing for and what is at stake, but our focus will not be on that," said Booi.

"The focus will be to execute what we did on the training field, to play to our strenghts and our identity as a team and to make sure, at the end of the match, we have made South Africa and ourselves proud."

The most-capped Test player in the South African women's game is adamant that they will arrive well prepared and have the expertise, skill and experience to silence the thousands of locals expected at the finale of the 2024 tournament.

"We came prepared," said Booi. "The coaches really did an excellent job in getting us ready for this and I am confident that we will reward them for that. We know what we want to do out there tomorrow and if we do that well, we will celebrate."

Booi said playing in front of a passionate crowd at Stade Makis elevate the experience for the players: "It is really great to play in front of a crowd like this. Yes, they might be supporting their own team tomorrow, but they also acknowledge good rugby, as we have experienced so far in our first two games.

"There will be noise and it will be intimidating, but we will have our focus and energy to combat that."

Booi is also happy with the effectiveness of South Africa's driving play, which has produced half a dozen maul tries already - five of them scored off the back of lineout drives by Lindelwa Gwala (hooker), the team's leading try-scorer at the tournament.

"Yes, we will be looking at that phase again to score points, but I believe we have a good overall game that will be able to absorb whatever is coming from our opponents," said Booi.

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