TALL, athletic, with her blonde pigtails hidden under a bucket hat, Libbie Janse van Rensburg is instantly recognisable at every Springbok Women’s training. She’s also usually the player calling the shots in every offensive move.
But of late, the Springbok flyhalf has been moved around the backline with coach Swys de Bruin still testing out combinations less than a month away from the Boks’ Rugby World Cup opener against Brazil in Northampton.
Janse van Rensburg started at No 10 with Tayla Kinsey as her halfback partner against the Black Ferns XI last Saturday at the Athlone Stadium before De Bruin made a complete switch with Zintle Mpupha slotting into the flyhalf position along with Nadine Roos shifting from fullback to No 9 in the second half.
“I think it’s exciting, especially for me. I’ve been playing at 10 for a very long time,” Janse van Rensburg told the media at UCT on Monday.
“I like the challenge of having to play at different positions as well. Although I find comfort in playing at 10, I know what’s expected of me. It’s also good to test yourself as a player so you don’t become too complacent.
“As we saw in the second half of the last game, the coaches will make positions and sometimes put you in a position that maybe you haven’t trained at or maybe you haven’t had a run there. I’s good for us all to be able to slot into any position.
“Like I say, anything happens at a World Cup. Anyone can pick up an injury and then you’re going to have to adapt to it. I think it’s good for our girls to play in those different positions.
“For me, I’m just doing whatever the coach wants me to do. Whatever he thinks is best for the team is where I’m at. I’m comfortable at 10, I’m comfortable at 12, comfortable at 15. So, like I say, whatever he makes the call.
“I think the team is very comfortable with me at 10. I think they find good cohesion around me at 10. So yeah, wherever the coach puts me at the end of the day, I’m happy to serve the team.”
While De Bruin has stressed throughout the team’s build-up to next month’s Rugby World Cup that he is comfortable switching the players around in the backline as he believes they all have the similar attacking skill-sets, the constant rotation of roles can disrupt the defensive alignment, which the Black Ferns XV capitalised on by exploiting the spaces out wide when the Boks rushed up in defence last Saturday.
Van Rensburg feels that this is not entirely due to the halfback pairing being chopped and changed as the responsibility lies with the centres to organise the players on defence.
“So, the rush defence comes more from our 12-13 channels,” she said. “But in the end, it’s the whole connection of the backline that has to call that rush.”
LIBBIE JANSE VAN RENSBURG’S HIT!!! 💥#WXV @WomenBoks
— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) October 13, 2023
The Black Ferns XV may have been a hastily assembled unit, but they certainly have a genuine playmaker in young Hannah King, who was desperately unlucky not to make the Black Ferns 32-player Rugby World Cup squad announced last Friday.
The young pivot certainly showed the Black Ferns selectors that she would be ready for a call-up should there be an injury in England with an assured performance at first five-eight as she set up her centre-pairing of Hollyrae Mete-Renata and Kelsey Teneti alongside for four tries on the night.
King’s little pop passes to Mete-Renata were particularly telling with the hard-running No 12 directly attacking Janse van Rensburg defensive channel.
“That’s why we’re playing against opposition like that, because they put so much pressure on us. We’re playing against the best that we can strive to become. I think it’s been working for us,” she said.
“I had a bit of a chat with her (King) afterwards and she said, well done to our team and what we brought to them. We also tested them.
“I think it’s so good for us to be playing against girls like that. They constantly trained at such a high level. It’s a great opportunity for us.
“I think the preparations are going really well. We’ve been building such solid foundations throughout the last three games and I think it’s absolutely great for us to have this kind of preparation leading into a World Cup.”
