#TuksRugby: Delta Drone TuksWomensRugby7's wins tournament in Paris

Posted on May 24, 2018

The Delta Drone TuksWomensRugby7's turned out to be real “lion killers” during the Centrale Sevens in Paris when they beat Wales in the semi-final and went on to win the tournament.

Beating Wales 19-12 yesterday is possibly one of the team’s best performances ever. Wales is currently the 9th best team in the world. Sweden and Germany who are respectively ranked 18th and 19th also competed.  Tuks won the quarterfinal by beating Finland 19-5. In the final Tuks accounted for the Ramblin Jesters winning 33-12.

Libbie Janse van Rensburg (captain) received the player of the tournament for the second consecutive year.

In the last 12 months, the Delta Drone TuksWomensRugby7's has won three international tournaments. Last year they won the Stanislas Sevens in France and was also victorious in Munchen. Earlier this year Tuks won the USSA Tournament.

“Pure guts and passion,” are the words an elated Riaan van der Merwe (coach) used to describe yesterday’s team performance.

“The players started out tired as they had just one day’s rest from playing in Sunday’s Stanislas Sevens-final in Nancy. But the moment they took to the field all that mattered to them was to win. Every one of them put their body on the line without hesitation. Their motivation was to make Tuks proud, showing that the university’s sports team are capable of taking on the world’s best teams and beat them.”

The try Shania-Lee Swart scored in the final was according to Van der Merwe an excellent example of the passion with which the players played. 

“Shania-Lee got the ball on the halfway line and was only stopped 20 metres from try-line. She managed to offload the ball. When her teammate got tackled, she was there to retake the ball and went on to score. It was brilliant," said Van der Merwe.

Thandeka Shongwe was sick, but that did not prevent her from playing. Her argument for taking to the field was that there was no way that she is going to let her teammates down. She will worry about sneezing and coughing afterwards.

Two months ago Kirsten Graaf was an avid touch rugby player who has represented South Africa. Yesterday during the final she proved that she has no qualms about getting physical. Playing at scrumhalf, she was the "general" setting her teammates time and again up in the right attacking moves.

Liske Lategan and Meghan Phillips, playing on the wing, were brilliant when they got the ball in hand while Janse van Rensburg along with Nadine Roos and Kemi Baloyi seems to be able to be able to lift their game when it mattered continuously.

Over the weekend to play the Delta Drone TuksWomensRugby7's will be competing in the  Benidorm 7’s Tournament in Spain.

 

 

- Author Wilhelm de Swardt

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