The Leopards Sevens team pulled off a thrilling 29-24 win over Eastern Province in a sudden-death playoff to win the Plate Final at the SARU Interprovincial Sevens at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on Saturday,7 November.

The match ended 24-24 when the full-time whistle sounded, but the Leopards’ Corné Duvenhage scored the winning try in extra time to take the plate back home to Potchefstroom.

The try came after Ian Heyns took a quick tap that took the EP defence by surprise. The next moment, a gleeful Duvenhage went over to seal a memorable win for the red and green hooped machine. This tournament featured 16 men’s teams and 18 women’s teams and was a great platform for South African emerging sevens players to show their skills with the ball in hand, as well as getting good match practice at the end of the year.

The Blue Bulls were hands down the best team of the tournament as both their men’s and women’s team won the men’s and women’s titles. The Blue Bulls men defeated Western Province 38-29 while the women also defeated the same opposition by a close 24-22 scoreline.

SWD was crowned Bowl Champions while Boland took home Shield Honours.

The Leopards played excellent rugby throughout the tournament, which was played in the sweltering summer heat of the Lowveld. The pitch was also in pristine condition for the duration of the tournament, which made for exciting running rugby.

The Leopards faced off against the eventual runners-up, Western Province, in their first match and almost gave the boys from the Cape a huge scare.

The match was deadlocked at 21-21 at full time, but Western Province managed to score the decisive try in extra time to give the Leopards their first loss. The Leopards bounced back in their second match and showed some teeth as they beat Free State 22-17. It was a well-deserved win, after coming anxiously close in their first match.

The Leopards finally came out strong in the plate final, where a great all round performance from  Heyns and John-William Dürr sealed the win.

The Leopards women also stamped their authority on proceedings in their first few matches but lost out to EP in the Bowl Final by 14-7.

The women’s team convincingly beat the Limpopo Blue Bulls 27-5 as well as Boland 31-14 before succumbing to the strong EP side in the final.

The Leopards Rugby Union can be proud of their sevens teams that once again shone the spotlight on the talent available in Potchefstroom and the rest of the province.

Their achievements were also noted by Springbok women’s sevens coach, Renfred Dazel, Paul Delport, SA Sevens Academy coach, and manager, Marius Schoeman who attended the tournament to scout for national players.