DURBAN, South Africa — Handlers of Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz believe their one-week tour of South Africa was a success.

The Reggae Girlz, who continue to fine-tune the process of finalising the 23-member roster for France, arrived in this coastal city for a camp and match against hosts South Africa.

According to members of the technical staff led by Hue Menzies, the exercise on the African continent was aimed at being a final evaluation of players they wanted to have another look at before naming the squad.

“Overall I thought the camp was good and it proved to be a good decision to come, and obviously this was bigger than football to come to South Africa and we want to thank the people as they were great hosts.

“At the beginning we thought one game was an issue as we thought we could go somewhere else and get another game and got more of an evaluation, but we have to learn to travel and deal with hostile environments, and it was hostile as the atmosphere created resembled that of a World Cup,” said Menzies, referring to the electrifying atmosphere in Sunday’s match at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.

That game ended 1-1.

With each team allowed six substitutes, Menzies believes this allowed him the opportunity to see more players in a competitive situation.

“The game was an opportunity to evaluate our roster and we went deep with this trip and that was the purpose of it,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Looking back over the five days of intense training, which composed the camp component of the trip, Menzies thinks the Girlz responded to the regime.

“We have created a culture within our group that you have to come and train hard, you have to compete as obviously everybody is competing for a spot in the team,” he noted.

Meanwhile, assistant coach Andrew Price says the exercise on a whole provided the platform for a number of returning players to “evaluate themselves”.

“ I would think the players would have given a good representation… a couple of players who have had niggling injuries and are coming back for the first time and we would have had some training sessions to the see them and the game was really the icing on the cake.

“I thought Sashana Campbell had a good game as she played 90 minutes, and she is coming back from an injury in the Chile game, and she was depressed thinking she wouldn’t be back in time, but she came and proved herself,” said Price, who, along with Lorne Donaldson, Will Hitzelberger and Hubert Busby, complete the technical panel.

Price, who has coached at the Premier League level in Jamaica and at the national level with beach football, also thought central defender Toriana Patterson made a strong case after coming back from injury.

“We saw Toriana Patterson, who has been out for the past two camps and she has come back and shown her worth coming on as a substitute, but I think crucially we were able to look at the players who were out injured, and we brought them down here to see where they were, and we were very impressed.

“But it [exercise] showed the depth of the cadre of 30 or 40 players we have, now it’s down to tightening the nuts and bolts and to come up with the final 23, and I think we are a lot closer to where we want to be now and we will be able to make that decision in the not-too-distant future,” he said on Sunday.

Price notes that the experience in South Africa was historical as it was sobering.

“It was a great experience, very historical. As you know when the Jamaica men’s team qualified for the World Cup, South Africa also qualified for the first time as well, and now we are here having qualified for the Women’s World Cup, just as they have done, and this, to me, is a special moment.

“Also, the atmosphere was something as at times we couldn’t even get messages from the bench to the Girlz on the pitch because it was so loud with the vuvuzelas, the chanting, the blaring horns, and they made it feel really like a World Cup game, but it was all done in good spirit and fun,” Price ended.

Jamaica will debut against Brazil, Italy and Australia in Group C of the Fifa Women’s World Cup in France June 7-July 9.

South Africa, meantime, will contest Group B against giants Germany, Spain and China.

—Sean Williams