Banyana Banyana captain Janine van Wyk heaped praise on her teammates for playing their "hearts out" in the 2-0 defeat to France in Reunion on Sunday.

This was Banyana's first competitive match since finishing fourth at the African Women's Championship in Cameroon in November. They conceded an eight-minute goal against the French, scored by Griedge Mbock Bathy, and found themselves two goals down by half time as the central defender completed her brace 10 minutes before the break.

"I think we had a good match, considering we had a month break before coming back to camp to prepare for a tough team like France. Yes, we did not get the result we wanted, but we gained so much experience and learnt so much from this game," said Van Wyk.

"We have learnt that when we face teams like this we need to give our best. We did exactly that. We were not in our best form, but we played our hearts out. I am really pleased with the performance of the team and we can only grow from here."

Banyana interim coach Desiree Ellis bemoaned the fact that they did not execute the game plan well, but lauded her players for putting up a fight for the entire 90 minutes.

"We had a game plan, [but] we did not execute it as well as we should have. When we conceded in the eighth minute, we had to start again.

"We looked good on the ball when we had it, but our final pass was lacking and we need to work on that. We did not create as much as we wanted to. But I was happy that we never gave up, which is important when you concede an early goal. We gave a good account of ourselves."

Banyana now have to wait on Safa to hear who they'll play next, as they hope to be kept active with international friendlies.