Springbok Women to tackle Canada and Spain in Madrid

The Springbok Women will tackle Canada and Spain in Test matches later this month.

It will be the SA women's first taste of Test action since the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand last September.

The Bok Women will play Canada in Madrid on Saturday 25 March, followed by a Test against the hosts there on 1 April.

The games were organised as Spain is hosting the Pacific Four Series 2023 - a tournament consisting of Tests between USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The South Africans were invited to play Canada the week before, while Spain will also play against the USA on 25 March.

The Canadians are ranked fourth on the women's World Rugby rankings, Spain 11th and South Africa 13th.

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SA Rugby's High-Performance Manager for Women's Rugby, Lynne Cantwell, said the opportunity to play Canada and Spain could not come at a better time.

"We have just started a new cycle that will hopefully see us being a contender at the 2025 Rugby World Cup in England," Cantwell said in a statement.

"We made massive strides last year, beating Japan abroad and Spain at home, but we did not have the best of World Cups in New Zealand.

"We are starting the new cycle now and these two test matches are the ideal opportunity to see where our starting point for 2025 should be.

"The introduction of new players from the Junior Springboks Women had also provided a positive impact. They are contributing nicely and are not only adding growing depth in important positions, but gaining good experience from the coaching structure at our camps, which thus far has included most the Springboks technical staff."

Cantwell said the matches in Spain would provide context about the team's progress: