WATCH: Rugby 7s ‘heaven’ at Douglas Mitchell but not for Warriors
It was a good day all round, even though the local favourites did not make the final.
There was a murmur that went through the crowd when the Living Ball came on to the field to warm up during the South Coast 7s rugby tournament last Saturday.
The big event was sponsored by Halfway Toyota Shelly Beach and held at Douglas Mitchell Sports Ground.
Local stars Status Warriors have won the trophy for the past few years. But everyone could see things would be different this year.
“They phoned us and said they were a church group from Pretoria,” said Christo Henderson with a wry grin.
However, it was soon obvious that they were a quality outfit with some superb athletes.
While they they may like to pray, they can certainly play too and ran rings around all comers.
This included the Warriors, who were unfortunate to draw them in the pool game and then again in the semi-finals.
“We were the only team that scored points against them,” said Warriors captain Nico Smuts.
Living Ball is an organisation (with offices in George and Pretoria) whose vision is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, using the ‘Living Ball’ as a tool – where each ball becomes a symbol of hope.
Living Ball beat Amanzimtoti 1 in the final.
“Winning is special but it’s more important for us to leave a legacy behind and to impact the community through school visits and our behaviour on and off the field,” said manager Franna Cillie, who heads up the Pretoria based branch of Living Ball.
Status Warriors had some consolation when beating Kapaailand fairly easily in the play-off for third and fourth place.
ALSO READ: This is what went down last year, when Warriors beat Klerksdorp
“It was a great weekend with good entertainment and I think the people enjoyed the day. Hopefully it will grow in the future and in doing so help improve rugby on the South Coast,” said Smuts.
A total of 16 teams took part on a day where the weather was nowhere near as hot as last year, thankfully.
Some rain during the week resulted in the pitches being fairly soft.
Stephen Jones, speaking on behalf of Halfway Toyota Shelly Beach, said it had been a privilege to be the main sponsor.
“It’s been a great day. Good to be involved,” he said.
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