2019 Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens Kicks Off Its First Day on a High Note

Day One of the 2019 Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens taking place in the coastal city of Monastir, Tunisia saw Madagascar, hosts Tunisia, South Africa and Kenya take huge strides in their qualification bids for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics World Rugby Sevens Series.

Morocco and Madagascar kicked off the first round of games with the North Africans suffering a 34-00 defeat at the hands of the Malagasy.

Hosts Tunisia defeated Mauritius 38-0. Zimbabwe were five points better than Zambia in a 12-7 victory.

Uganda lost 32-00 to the South African Rugby Veterans while Senegal were able to overcome Botswana 19-10.

First-timers Ghana were taught a rugby lesson by defending champions, Kenya who ran out 36-00 winners.

The first round of the games ended on a positive note for many. The teams and officials soon resumed play after a short 22 minutes break between sessions.

The second round of games resumed with Madagascar beating Mauritius 41-00.

Tunisia earned their second win of the day with a hefty 31-00 spanking of fellow North Africans Morocco.

The Southern Africans continued their winning streak, this time beating Zimbabwe 31-00 as well while Uganda edged Zambia 15-10.

Ghana suffered its second defeat of the day at the hands of Senegal 17-10 while Kenya scored the largest victory of the opening day with a 51-00 whitewashing of Botswana.

The third round of games saw Morocco claim their first win with a 41-00 defeat of Mauritius, hosts Tunisia also suffered their first loss, going down 14-07 to Madagascar.

South Africa earned a third victory and clean sheet from three games on the day with a 36-00 defeat of Zambia. Uganda beat Zimbabwe 10-05 in the least scoring game of the day while Ghana scored a maiden win with a 12-10 victory over Botswana.

Reactions

Lovemore Kuzorera (Head Coach, Ghana)

It was a good day for us, a new experience. Most of the girls on our team are not so experienced yet. I’m happy about their performance today. We played well against defending champion Kenya and managed to hold them for a while. It was an achievement for us. We have accomplished the goals we set off here to accomplish. We know tomorrow will be a tough day, but we take each game as it comes.”

Felix Oloo (Head Coach, Kenya)

The teams have stepped up. I’m very happy that all the teams are playing good rugby. In the beginning we were sluggish, but we picked it up from the first game to the last game. Going forward, we are looking at every game individually. We treat every game as if it were the final, they are equally important. It won’t be easy.”

Paul Delport (Head Coach, South Africa)

All the teams have been on top and it’s definitely an improvement in many teams’ play and rugby standards so that is fantastic to see. We need to work on a few things for tomorrow. We still do not know who our opponents will be, but our only focus is on the quarter final tomorrow.”