The Delta Drone TuksWomensRugby7's team indeed managed to make its presence felt in nine days of playing rugby in Europe by winning 16 of their 18 games.

On Sunday they finished third in the Benidorm Tournament in Spain. Four days before they had won the Centrales Sevens Tournament outside Paris and the previous weekend they lost in the final of the Stanislas Tournament in Nancy.

The only two teams that managed to beat Tuks during the three tournaments they contested were Poland and Kazakhstan however they had a real battle on hand. During the Stanislas Sevens-final Poland only managed to score the winning try in the dying minutes. The final score was 14-12. On Sunday during the Benidorm semi-final, Kazakhstan just won after two minutes of extra time was played. The score was 15-10.

In the playoffs for the third place in Benidorm Tuks ran out the victors by beating Catalunya 31-0.

A definite tour highlight was when Tuks got to beat Wales in the semi-final of the Centrale Sevens Tournament. Wales is ranked as the ninth best women’s sevens team in the world.

Tuks scored a total of 643 points in the 18 games they played and only conceded 90. What makes this remarkable is that seven of the 13 players just started playing rugby this year.

Riaan van der Merwe (coach) is of the opinion that this is one of the best teams to have ever donned the coveted “striped jersey”. He ascribes the team’s success to passion and guts.

“What was exciting to see was how each player was involved in at least one game-changing moment during our three tournaments.

“Our captain, Libbie Janse van Rensburg, and the more experienced players, Nadine Roos, Kemi Baloyi and Lolli Hlabangane were constantly good throughout the three tournaments which made it easier for the new players to express themselves through trial and error on the field.”

The scrumhalf, Kristin Graaff, is according to Van der Merwe one of the real finds during their tour.

“It is as if she can pre-empt what is going to happen on the field which means she has time after time managed to set up good attacking moves.”

The Tuks Varsity Athletics winning captain, Meghan Phillips, is another player who impressed Van der Merwe.

“Meghan played with more confidence each time she took to the field. During the Benidorm Tournament, she scored three tries in one game. One of her best tries was when Meghan got the ball near the halfway line and ran through to score. I enjoyed watching how she gained more confidence in the defence. At the start of the tour she was sort of hesitant, but in our last game, the opposition players had their work cut-out to get past her.

“Thandeka Shongwe is another player who gets better the more she played. She was brilliant on defence against Kazakhstan. In the playoffs for the third place on Sunday she caught the ball from the kick-off ran for 40 metres to score.”

Delta Drone TuksWomensRugby7's next Tournament is in Rome (15-16 June); then they will be in action during the Paris World Cup (6-8 July); followed by the Munchen Oktoberfest Tournament (5-6 October). Their last tournament is in Dubai (29-30 November).