'Magnificent' home crowd keeps SA women going after back-to-back World Cup losses

The South African women may have lost in both of their outings at the Sevens World Cup in Cape Town so far, but star player Nadine Roos says it has been "magnificent" playing in front of an "electric" home crowd. 

A 29-0 loss to France in the last 16 on Friday night was followed by a 14-12 defeat to Japan on Saturday morning, and South Africa will now take on Colombia at 15:27 in a 13th/16th place playoff.  

The Japan loss, in particular, will hurt given the opportunities the South Africans had throughout the contest. 

It was an agonising finish for coach Paul Delport and his charges, who had the ball on the Japanese try line for several plays as the full-time whistle approached. 

The growing Cape Town crowd let out a collective groan as the ball finally went out into touch, bringing the game to a close, and Roos afterwards described the feeling of competing in a home World Cup. 

"It’s always an honour representing the Springbok badge, especially playing on home soil," said Roos.

"The stadium is electric and feeding off the energy from the crowd and supporters is always magnificent. I always want to represent the badge with pride and passion.

"Come support the women’s and men’s sides. You’re going to have some great rugby for the rest of the day."

On her side's performance, Roos acknowledged an element of frustration, but said the potential was there to improve. 

South African women's Sevens, after all, is relatively new to competing at this elite level. 

"France are silver medalists at the Olympics and they finished third in the world series, so getting a 29-0 against teams like that when we had a lot of opportunities is not that bad," she said. 

"Those teams are consistent on the world stage and we lack a bit of that. It’s