Despite a valiant effort the TuksWomensRugby 7s Team campaign to contest for the trophy at the Centrale Sevens Tournament in Paris came to an end when they lost 22-5 to Ukraine yesterday afternoon.
But it was not all doom and gloom for the “StripeUp Team”. In their first game yesterday, Tuks drew 12-12 against Belgium. It was certainly one of the surprises of the tournament as Belgium is currently ranked 21st best women’s team in the world while Tuks is only a club team.
Riaan van der Merwe (coach) could not help feeling slightly disappointed afterwards.
“We played really good rugby and could have won. The players put up a great move to set up what could have been the winning try but unfortunately, the referee decided it was a forward pass. The other bad luck we had was when Nadine (Roos) scored the equalising try in the corner. Libbie (Janse van Rensburg) conversion attempt bounced on the crossbar and then hit the post before bouncing back into the playing field. If it was over we would have won.
“The Belgium players went berserk after the failed conversion as they realised how close they came to losing.”
Janse van Rensburg scored Tuks’s first try and was successful with the conversion.
Janse van Rensburg (captain) has got no excuses for what happened in the game against Ukraine.
“We could not follow through after our success against Belgium. One of our team's problems is that we tend to get in a comfort zone forgetting that a game can only be won if every player gives a 100% all the time.”
Xandrea Breitenbach, a matriculant from Hoërskool Tuine, scored Tuks’s only try. It is her first try in international rugby.
At 11:00 today, Tuks will play against Finland in the Semi of the Plate Final competition.
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