"Boxing" well above their weight is the best way to describe the performances of the UP-Tuks Delta Drone women's sevens rugby team this season.

At any given time there might be ten players at most who turn up to practice. 

Needless to say one of the biggest challenges Riaan van der Merwe (head coach) faces is to try and coax women to play sevens rugby. The proverbial ace up his sleeve is that women who love travelling should take up rugby. 

His catchphrase is: "Sidestep, tackle and get to see the world." 

It is no exaggeration. This season the UP-Tuks team has played two tournaments in France. From Saturday they will compete in the Munchen Oktoberfest  Sevens Tournament. At the end of the year, the team will be going to Dubai. Last year they also played in Hong Kong.

The UP-Tuks team is certainly not just playing to have fun. They want to win, and they do win. A definite highlight was winning the Stanlisas Sevens Tournament in France. What made the result remarkable is that as a club team they played against various national teams.

During the tournament in Nancy, France, the team's captain, Libbie Janse van Rensburg, received the Player of the Tournament-award."

The UP-Tuks players are also impacting on the national and international sevens scene. 

The South African women's sevens team recently won the African Cup Tournament. In doing so, they qualified for next year's Commonwealth Games in Australia as well as the World Cup Sevens in San Francisco.

Nadine Roos, Megan Comley and Jackie Kriel all learned the finer skills for playing sevens rugby under Van der Merwe's guidance before they got selected to play for the Springboks.

Marithy Pienaar is another former UP-Tuks player who has been contracted by the Boks. Unfortunately, due to an injury, she could not play at the African Cup Tournament. 

Bianca Meyer represented the Bok Invitational Team at a tournament in Japan, and so the list goes on for UP-Tuks players that stepped up to the next level.

The Oktoberfest Tournament is going to be a tough challenge for the UP-Tuks. They will play five games on Saturday and depending on the outcome they might have to contest three more games the next day.

Van der Merwe is not worried because when out scouting he is always looking for former track and field athletes or hockey players because they got a good fitness base.