Forwards coach Eddie Myners said the physical nature of warm-up matches against men’s team had been the step up they had needed.

“One of the key issues identified on our November Series tour against France, Wales, the full contact against England and the match against the Barbarians was that we needed to step up physically,” said Myners.

“Those teams have well-established players who are amongst the most physical in the women’s game and we were not up to their standards.”

Two live training sessions – both against men – took place during the camp and Myners explained the rationale of fronting up against Hamilton’s Under-20 and Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s teams.

“Training against these two teams during this camp was a deliberate plan to address the question of physicality, coupled with our focus to improve in set-phase play and better execution of our exit strategies,” Myners said.

“We had a 50% percent line-out return against Hamilton and upped that to 67% against CPUT on Wednesday, while we were also successful on our own ball in the scrum against the two teams.

“That was great for us, as the players responded and improved as the camp progressed. That is what we asked for and we cannot fault that effort.”

The 31-player squad is in preparation for the world rugby showpiece where France, England and Fiji will await the South Africans in the group stages, all to be played in Auckland and surrounds.

Myners said: “In a nutshell, we improved in every area and that is rewarding. The players came to grips with what is expected, and the growth was such that we are on track for New Zealand, without doubt.”

A number of specialist camps will take place in the forthcoming weeks, with Springbok scrum coach Daan Human again assisting with the tight five and kicking consultant Braam van Straaten spending a day with the squad’s kickers.

The players will then be released to their provinces for the start of the SA Rugby Women’s Premier Division that will kick off during the weekend of 23 April.