Exclusive: Jakkie Cilliers Credits Bulls’ Pro Setup and Swys de Bruin for Springbok Progress

South African points-machine Jakkie Cilliers is one of the Springbok Women who has the amenity of playing in a fully professional set-up for the Isuzu Bulls Daisies at Loftus Versfeld and the 24-year-old says that is helping the cohesion and growth of the national team.

The Bulls are the only province in South Africa with a fully professional women's set-up, an advantage that was further boosted last week as Isuzu became the title sponsors of the team that have now claimed a hat-trick of domestic titles, in commanding fashion. 

Cilliers, South Africa's Provincial Player of the Year, holds the record for the most points in a domestic season.

The Springboks' last outing was a series against the world's second-ranked team in Canada and 12 Bulls players were involved across the two Tests. 

South Africa were well-beaten 50-20 in the first match in Pretoria, but the second game was a far more competitive affair, showing that they are quick learners. Canada ultimately won 33-5, but the scoreline would have been much closer had the hosts shown better decision-making in the opposition 22 and converted more of their several scoring opportunities.

Three more Bulls have now been added to the 32-strong Springbok squad that will tackle the Black Ferns XV in two Tests in Cape Town this weekend and the next. 

New Zealand are the defending World Cup champions, but this will be their second-string squad coming to South Africa.

Nevertheless, the series will be valuable preparation for the Springboks as they look to become an even tighter unit ahead of the World Cup starting in England on August 22.

"It really helps that the Bulls are a professional set-up so we have a lot of players in the Springbok Women's side, making it easy for us to make that step up. We train together every day, so we get those relationships between each other that really help the performance," Cilliers told SportsBoom.co.za in an exclusive interview.

"We definitely felt an improvement between the first Test against Canada and the second. We've been training very hard, working on implementing our game-plan and there was a big difference in that in the second match."

"The big thing though was our finishing. We played in Canada's half most of the time, we had the knife in but then we just did not twist it. But being able to play against a top side like them will really help our World Cup preparation, and we saw improvement in certain areas," Cilliers, who has scored 71 points in 19 Tests through four tries, 21 conversions and three penalties, said.

Swys moves across

The centre/wing said the growth in the Springbok Women has also been boosted by former Springbok attack coach Swys de Bruin moving across from the men's game to become the performance coach for the women.

"I have no words for how marvellous and special it has been to have Coach Swys in charge. He just brings all his love and passion for the game, he's not one of those coaches who drains your energy. Swys sees what we are capable of and he has been absolutely amazing to work with," Cilliers said.

The Springbok Women have also had excellent support from men's national captain Siya Kolisi, and he once again publicly backed the team ahead of leading his side against Georgia last weekend.

"If women's rugby grows then South African rugby grows. But to play rugby needs a lot of different things, it's not like soccer where you just need a ball and a field. Our women need that push, and I've wanted to be there for them from the beginning. Some of their squad also come from the Eastern Cape and have similar stories to mine," Kolisi said. 

"It's a big year for them with the World Cup and I really believe they can reach the quarterfinals this time. They've shown a lot of improvement and I look forward to seeing how they do in England. But we all need to get behind them. I don't see many men or women watching their games, the stands are empty. They've got to feel our backing in these last two games before the World Cup."

Excellent chance

The Springboks' best finish at the World Cup was 10th in 2010 and 2014, but they have an excellent chance of making the quarterfinals for the first time this year. 

The world's 12th-ranked team are in Pool D with France, Italy and Brazil.

They will be favoured to beat 25th-ranked Brazil on August 24 in their opening match, and their crunch game will be on August 31 against eighth-ranked Italy. 

South Africa have not beaten Italy in three previous women's Tests, but their last meeting saw the Springboks narrowly defeated, 23-19 last year in Cape Town. If they can reverse that result then they should make the quarterfinals as one of the two qualifiers from their pool.

"Everyone is talking about making the World Cup quarterfinals and I really believe we have a chance, after not really having one in the last tournament due to the draw. The pool we have this time, we really feel we can make our mark. But at the moment, our focus is just on Game One against Brazil," Cilliers added. 

"In 2029, I hope we can go much further because the game is growing so amazingly. If we can set a mark in this World Cup, then things will look very different for South African women's rugby in 2029."