SA Women ‘A’ fall away against Brazil

Leading 19-5 after a controlled first half of rugby, the South Africans – who fielded a very young side – looked set to overturn Monday's 34-12 defeat to the same opponents, but completely lost the plot in the second half, conceding 24 unanswered points to go down in disappointing fashion.

What started really well for the visitors disappeared in the second half as the Yaras changed tact and started rumbling up through the forwards, a tactic that proved decisive as South Africa’s defence could not cope with that, conceding two yellow cards in the process.

After the kick-off was delayed due to inclement weather, Brazil started best and enjoyed most of the play in the opening minutes, with South Africa not doing themselves any favours in conceding a number of breakdown penalties.

Five minutes in, Brazil No 8 Milena Mariano broke wide from a scrum and offloaded to wing Geovanna Pereira, who scored in the corner for a 5-0 lead.

SA inside centre Lilitha Vakalisa then kickstarted a memorable 30 minutes for the visitors by scoring a great try from a lineout, with a strong direct run wrong-footing the home defence. The conversion by Mary Zulu was good and SA ‘A’ led 7-5.

Wing Isabella Nel then scored an even better try, but only because it was a team effort. The South Africans stole a Brazil lineout, took the ball through two phases with the forwards and then moved it to the backs where crisp passing found Nel in full flight as she raced away for a try from 50m out. Zulu converted from a tight angle for a 14-5 lead.

Brazil came back well, but the South Africans’ defensive efforts were on song as they held up a Brazilian attacker over the line and could escape with a goal line dropout.

With the Brazil attack calmed down, it was the visitors who worked their way up the field, with Nel scoring her second try.

A couple of penalties in the Brazil half handed South Africa good field position and from another such a quick penalty advantage, the ball was moved wide and Nel found herself in enough space to run in.

The lead was 19-5 and at the same time, the rain started coming down heavily, affecting the handling of both sides.

That also worked in South Africa's favour, as their scrum were dominant and earned them more penalties, but twice, while going for the attacking lineout, hooker Karabo Lebotsa missed her jumper and the attack came of nothing.

The second half did not deliver the same frantic action early on, with both sides again guilty of handling errors when in possession. From a couple of those, the South Africans looked to counter, but sloppy handling didn’t help their cause, with Anitha Fazi, who was converted to scrumhalf for this game, struggling to get the wet ball away from the base.

With that, the SA ‘A’ side were slowly losing the grip they had on the game, with Brazil starting to get more hands on the ball and keeping it amongst their forwards.

They attacked with more confidence and after some maul attacks by the pack, flanker Monalisa Freitas scored to give the home crowd something to smile about. At 19-10 and with 15 minutes to play, the Yaras still had it all to do though.

They did that by not overcomplicating things, sticking with maul attacks and Freitas crashed over for a second try. The conversion was good and suddenly it was a two-point game at 19-17.

Carmelita Malone was yellow carded and a third try to Freitas after some very average defence near their own line by South Africa saw the hosts take the lead at 24-19.

Brazil had all the momentum and when Yonda Nokwe was also yellow carded soon after coming off the bench, the writing was on the wall, with another try at the death confirming the win for the home side.

**Scorers:**

**Brazil 29 (5)** – Tries: Geovanna Pereira, Monalisa Freitas (3), Giovanna Braz. Conversions: Fernanda Tenoria, Rachuel Kochhann.

**SA Women ‘A’ 19 (19)** – Tries: Lilitha Vakalisa, Isabella Nel (2). Conversions: Mary Zulu (2).

Source: Original report at SA Rugby.