Big year awaits TuksWomensRugby team with international title in their sights
After years of dominating the women's sevens rugby scene in South Africa, the Delta Drone TuksWomensRugby sevens team will later this year get the chance to write a world title behind their name.
The Delta Drone TuksWomensRugby sevens team’s goal for this season is to win a world title.
If they make this dream come true, they will be the first women’s sports team from the university to be crowned world champions.
Their challenge is to win the first-ever FISU University World Cup Rugby Sevens Tournament (12-14 August) in Kazan, Russia. Tuks will represent Africa. Only eight women’s and eight men’s teams will be competing.
Tuks’s women got a reputation of being capable of beating the best. Before the Covid Pandemic outbreak, they won tournaments in France and Germany. They even got the better of national teams.
However, their coach, Riaan van der Merwe, is the forever realist.
“Our players lack experience. Only six of the current team have played internationally. So, there is a lot of hard work to be done. It would be nice to have one or more speedy players in the team as in sevens, games are often won by raw speed,” he explained recently after the team resumed their training schedule.
Van der Merwe is banking that some first-year students might join the team.
“Just think for the first time you as a student can be part of a university team that wins a World Cup. I would have loved to have had such opportunity when I studied at Tuks,” he remarked.
Van der Merwe added that quite a few talented provincial hockey and netball players became Springboks after switching to sevens rugby.
“All it takes to be a good sevens player is passion and dedication,” he explained his opinion.
Van der Merwe is excited that Liske Lategan (Springbok sevens player) and Kemi Baloyi are studying again. Baloyi captained Tuks to win the Varsity Sevens Tournament in 2019.
The experienced coach has got quite a busy international schedule planned. If the Covid travel regulations allow for it, he hopes to play three tournaments in France, one in Spain, and one in the Czech Republic in the build-up to the World Cup.
He is pretty excited about the invitation to play at the Melrose Sevens Tournament (7-10 April) in Scotland. Tuks will play the main curtain-raiser. Melrose is regarded as the birthplace of sevens rugby.
“As far as I am concerned, it is one of the most prestigious events on the international sevens rugby calendar. It all started when Melrose Rugby Football Club needed to raise funds. It was Ned Haig who came up with the idea to shorten the game to 15 minutes. He also suggested that only seven players per side should take to the field. His reasoning was that it would make it possible to play eight games in an afternoon,” he explained.
According to Van der Merwe, the first tournament was hosted on 28 April 1883. Haig played for Melrose, who defeated Gala in the final. In 2008, Haig and Melrose Rugby Football Club were honoured for their role in creating rugby sevens with induction to the IRB Hall of Fame.
After the World Cup, Tuks will also play tournaments in Munchen and Dubai. There is also a possibility that they might play in the USA.
The team practises are on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 17:30 onwards at the Tuks Sports Campus in Hatfield.
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