Springbok lock Ubisi eyes redemption against Black Ferns

Saturday's Test between the Springbok Women and New Zealand's Black Ferns – the first ever played on South African soil – marks a landmark moment for the women's game, but for lock Vainah Ubisi it is also a chance to settle unfinished business.

The 23-year-old, who came through Limpopo's Youth Training Centres as a teenager, has racked up 26 Test caps since debuting against Spain in Madrid at the age of 20 in 2023. She quickly became a fixture in the Bok Women's engine room, starting 18 consecutive Tests across 2023 and 2024 and establishing herself as one of the side's most consistent performers.

A knee injury in 2025 disrupted that trajectory, however, threatening her place at this year's Rugby World Cup and badly interrupting her build-up. She did make it to England, but featured only from the bench in three matches, including the quarter-final defeat to the Black Ferns – a game New Zealand had already put beyond reach by the time she came on.

“It was frustrating to go to the World Cup not having played much rugby and trying to catch up, so that experience was not the greatest for me,” Ubisi said this week as the squad put the finishing touches to their preparations for Saturday's match at St John's College in Houghton.

Now fully fit, Ubisi has reasserted her reputation as the country's premier No 4 lock. Strong displays in the Pick n Pay Women's Super League carried into the international arena, where she scored crucial tries against the USA in Johannesburg and in both Tests of the Bok Women's tour of Fiji.

She credited her improved form for a sharper reading of the game. “Feeling strong and confident in my abilities also helps me in my game management,” she said.

“I am not waiting for something to happen; I see it as my job at lock to make this happen. We are the engine room after all.”

Ubisi is under no illusions about the scale of Saturday's task but is relishing the opportunity to measure herself against the world champions on home turf – and on her own terms this time.

“I am happy with where I am at with regards to my form, my physicality and my growth as an international lock, and it is going to be great to be tested by the Black Ferns. At the World Cup, they did not see the best of me,” she said.

“My Black Ferns experience was not the greatest, but now, less than a year later, I can redeem that. I almost feel I will meet them on my terms this time around, if you understand what I mean. I am confident in my current form, they are coming to face us on our home soil, and we face off in the biggest stadium in the country. What more can one ask for?”