{"id":427944,"date":"2026-01-21T15:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427944\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T15:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:09:09","slug":"springbok-women-to-host-usa-in-historic-test-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427944\/","title":{"rendered":"Springbok Women to host USA in historic Test series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The two Tests, at Ellis Park (Saturday, 4 July) and Loftus Versfeld (Saturday, 11 July), will form part of double headers when the Boks host England in Johannesburg and Scotland in Pretoria.<\/p>\n<p>The Bok Women and USA have never met in South Africa before. Their last encounter was in March 2024, when the USA won 38-17 at the Ealing Trailfinders Sports Grounds in London.<\/p>\n<p>This news follows another breakthrough announcement last month that the Springbok Women will also be playing the Black Ferns of New Zealand as part of a double header at the third Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry Test at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on 4 September, in what is yet another first clash on home soil.<\/p>\n<p>Springbok Women head coach Swys de Bruin welcomed the confirmation of the USA fixtures as a big boost for the squad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot only will we play two double headers with the Springboks, which is already massive for us, but it falls in line with our objective to play as many top ten teams as possible in the new World Cup cycle,\u201d said De Bruin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur ambitions for the next Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup in Australia are well documented by now, and these two Tests will be a brilliant start towards that goal.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/240330-danelle-lochner-bok-women-v-usa.jpg\" alt=\"Danelle Lochner in action against the USA in March 2024.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Danelle Lochner in action against the USA in March 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe USA play in the Pacific Four Series every year, exposing them to the high intensity rugby of opponents Canada, New Zealand and Australia, a luxury we did not have in previous years. But thanks to World Rugby\u2019s new format of the top 12 ranked sides playing each other and SA Rugby\u2019s commitment to make these happen, these objectives can now become a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The USA Eagles Women General Manager of High Performance, Tamara Sheppard, was equally pleased about the fixtures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTouring South Africa is a great opportunity for us to keep growing and developing against a Rugby World Cup quarter-final team,\u201d said Sheppard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re excited to embrace the challenge to play in front of some of the passionate rugby fans in the world, and it will be an incredible experience for this developing Eagles group to test ourselves across the two test matches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The USA Women Eagles are ranked eighth in the world, while the Springbok Women are at an all-time high of 10th, following the 2025 Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup in England, where South Africa reached the quarter-finals for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>The Bok Women were knocked out by New Zealand, while the USA bowed out at the same stage after a defeat to Canada, the eventual runners-up.<\/p>\n<p>SA Rugby also confirmed two matches between the U20 sides of the two countries. The Junior Springbok Women will play their USA counterparts on 18 and 25 July in the Cape Town region. The Americans will be based at the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport for the duration of their tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two Tests, at Ellis Park (Saturday, 4 July) and Loftus Versfeld (Saturday, 11 July), will form part&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-427944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}