Springbok Women's coach laments breakdown issues after defeat to Canada
Springbok Women's performance coach Swys de Bruin was left to lament an apparent lack of clarity around rules governing the breakdown after his charges' 50-20 defeat against Canada at Loftus on Saturday.
The Bok Women were punished repeatedly by Italian referee Clara Munarani for apparent transgressions at the breakdown. They struggled to build momentum as a result, especially in the first half. They trailed 26-3 at the interval against the world's second-ranked team.
De Bruin said his team needs more clarity around the contentious ruck area, especially with the World Cup around the corner.
'We gave away four soft tries and that was 28 points gone,' said De Bruin. 'Against a team like Canada, who are really skilful and have a good style of rugby, that is never going to give you the result you want.
'Also, six of the first seven penalties against us were for breakdown infringements and that is something we will have to look at this coming week.
'We worked with (former referee) Alain Rolland during the week in order to be accurate in those areas, but the application of the breakdowns was different to what our players trained on in the week and we could not adapt.
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