She played her first Test a decade ago, and this week in Madrid, Springbok Women scrumhalf Tayla Kinsey is yet again chomping at the bit to have another opportunity to represent her country.

Come Saturday, in a first Test against Canada for Kinsey, she and her fellow Bok Women will start a 2023 season which holds much promise and, according to the 29-year-old from Durban, they need a convincing opening display against the fourth-ranked team in the world.

The Springbok Women are ranked 13th, but as Kinsey points out, they are not unfamiliar to playing top sides, having faced England (second) and France (third) at the Rugby World Cup last year.

“The only issue for us will be the fact that we have not played since the World Cup, but at least we have a large group of those players here, so they have a fair idea of what to expect,” said Kinsey.

“Having said that, we have a number of new players on tour too and hopefully they will get a taste of what international rugby is all about. This tour is pretty much about building depth in our squad too.”

Kinsey reflects with a smile on her early days of international rugby, all of 24 Tests (and 48 points) ago: “We did not have much depth back then, I even played at flyhalf in some Tests and was the main goal kicker. Now we have up to three good players in each position and at the end of the tour, the new players will also be in contention.”

The squad arrived in Madrid on Sunday evening and their Spain tour is now firmly underway, with this weekend’s clash against Canada to be followed by a Test against Spain on 1 April, all to be played at Estadio Nacional de la Universidad Complutense.

“The flight was a short hop over from London and we have settled in nicely. We had a training run against Wales in London on Saturday, travelled here on Sunday and we were out on the training field today, so it was a good, positive couple of days for us,” Kinsey explained their itinerary.

“The players are pretty resilient in our approach, but we can be even better in that regard. The forwards did a lineout session walk through in the hotel’s parking lot this morning without missing a beat,” she smiled. “We try to make things work.”

Kinsey is upbeat about the progress in the game she has seen over the last decade: “We are certainly getting there. This tour will add resilience and squad depth and from a professional view and improve our abilities on the field as well.

“We are preparing well; we are using an analyst to prepare us for each session and will be keen to test ourselves against Canada this weekend,” she added.

The team to face Canada will be named on Tuesday.

Issued by SA Rugby Communications

Photo by Andrew Cornaga / Photosport / BackpagePix