With group favourites Nigeria dropping points during their first two group games of the Fifa World Cup qualifiers, Bafana Bafana had an opportunity to spring into pole position. They failed.

Hugo Broos and his Bafana Bafana charges will aim to forget as quickly as possible their most recent match. The South Africans were downed 2-0 by Rwanda during a Fifa World Cup qualifier on Tuesday.

The defeat of the South Africans came as a surprise -- especially as Broos and his men were unbeaten in 12 games, dating back to June 2022 when they were vanquished by Morocco in an Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualification encounter.

By contrast, the victory was Rwanda's first in 11 home matches. It was also Rwanda's first win in a year. Not to mention that the two goals that won the game, courtesy of Innocent Nshuti and Gilbert Mugisha, were the first that the Wasps have managed on home soil since 2021.

To say the Wasps' stings left Bafana Bafana shell-shocked would be an understatement. Though they eventually managed to find their footing at a waterlogged Huye Stadium in the city of Butare, it was too late to have any impact on the result.

South Africa's coach Broos had aired his concerns on the synthetic pitch in the build-up to the qualification match for the 2026 soccer World Cup, calling it "a very bad...