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The main question is, "Is there such a thing at all?". The answer is of course NO. This is one of the biggest obstacles for the development of the women's game worldwide. The perfect example is the team from Tukkies. Despite their performances even on the international stage, they receive no or very little support from the University rugby club, or from the Blue Bulls Rugby union. Even after finishing in the top four (official placing of equal third) in the International Invitational Women's competition in Dubai in 2009, their budget is still the same as last year, ZERO. The only positive was that the University, after a special request to the controlling body, contributed a portion of the costs to allow the players to go to Dubai. (Even the US national women's team had to contribute to their own air-fares!)

The women put in a lot of work and they don't get rewarded for their efforts. In 2009 the Tuks ladies team started practice in early January. The girls had practice session of one and a half hours each, two or three times a week up to the beginning of December and none of that was rewarded the unions or the clubs. At the same time they also have no privileges regarding gymnasium work and it is only a few that can afford a gym membership. Which also means that the time they spend on the training pitch must include all aspects of conditioning, skills, strategy, etc. While these girls have to work to be able to live. (As an example, seven Tukkies girls were invited to the National training camp in January and at least three had to decline the invitation due to work commitments)

Every year the girls also hear the same empty promises from the union, that "conditions will change", that they "will look after the players", that they "will get something in return for the efforts they put in". But the sad truth is clearly evident in the "Blue Bulls Strategic Plan - 2009-2013", as taken "as is" from their website that there is no workable plan to actually address the inequality. The saddest part of this is that this "strategic plan" is supposed to be for the period up to 2013, which means we can expect absolutely no changes up to then. It is also clear that women are excluded from the "high performance group" and the only functioning high performance group in women's rugby is actually run and funded by the coaches of the Tukkies Women's team in their personal capacity. The coaches pay out of their own pockets for the players transport to and from practices. The coaches pay for other expenses that include training kit and equipment, and transport cost to and from events. If they are lucky the Tukkies women's team receive ONE set of jerseys from the club in a year.

At the same time the IRB and national sporting bodies are making a huge hoo-haa about the sevens game being included in the Olympic Games in 2016, they appear to do very little to promote the women's game. In the Las Vegas International women's event, the women's games are being played on a pitch to the side and only the final is played on the main ground! Even in Dubai, in the UAE, which is supposed to be a predominantly Islamic nation, the women get more exposure on the main pitch.

What is also very evident, is the general negative vibe from the men at the union and club after the achievements of the Tuks Ladies team. The fact that the team was able to perform, as a club team on the international stage, with a ZERO budget appears to be a huge problem in some quarters. What was actually amazing was the exact opposite and positive responses from the international men's sevens teams in Dubai, where positive feedback came from the South African and the Fiji men's teams.

So, we have to ask, "where is the problem then?". As it appears that the public and the men's players accept the participation of women readily. Why are the women then struggling to find support from the administrators. Does the problem lie with the clubs, or the provincial unions, or is it with the national union, or could the problem start at the top, with the IRB? At this stage however there is a lot of finger pointing, but not one single body prepared to take the responsibility. The club blames the union, the union blames the club and the national body, etc, etc... Maybe we should let an "Equality Court" decide? Or should the women break away from the men's game and run their own controlling body?

Written by: Konrad Lotter, the assistant coach/technical advisor.

On Saturday the 16th of January a few mwmbers of the women's team together with head coach Riaan van der Merwe were present at the open day at the Pretoria University main campus. During this yearly event, the Tukkies women's team take the opportunity to introduce the team to new students and recruit new players. For the first time, during this year's event the university vice chancellor and principal, Dr. Cheryl de la Rey, joined a few players and posed for a photograph with a few team members.
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Tuks Ladies performed admirably at the Annual Dubai sevens tournament in the International Invitation Women's section of the tournament. Tuks Ladies were the only team that competed as a true club side in the international Invitation section against a number of countries. A number of these teams were entered as invitation teams while retaining most of their World Cup squads. The USA entered an "upcoming team" to blood new players in preparation for the future.

The Tuks ladies teams were one of first to play on the main pitch in conditions they never played in before, with a huge crowd present at that stage. This had a clear effect as they started nervously and France scored the first try. After this the Tuks ladies struck back and equalised. In the end France won the match 17-12, but it was already clear from the crowd reaction that the Tuks Ladies were to be a crowd favourite right throughout the tournament.

In their second match the Tuks Ladies were much more relaxed and in a stadium filled to near capacity, the team from Tukkies beat the Bangkok Angels (Thailand) 33-0.

The next match was against the highly rated USA team and through determination and a huge defensive effort managed to beat the USA 14-12. The team from the USA dominated much of the play and were somewhat unlucky to be denied a win by the highly motivated Tuks team. This established the Tuks Ladies not only as a crowd favourite, but surprisingly as one of the tournament favourites.

In the last match of the day, the Tuks Ladies management made a number of changes to rest key players, specifically as a few of these players had some minor muscle strains and fatigue showed in those used in all the previous matches. Tuks Ladies lost to the Moscow Region (Russia) 12-0.

Despite this Tuks Ladies managed to finish second in their pool behind Russia, with Tuks Ladies, the USA and France all on the same points, with only the points difference from their matches separating the teams.

Day 2:
In their quarter final encounter against the Arabian Gulf, Tuks Ladies outplayed the Arabian Gulf team, but a few mistakes brought the Gulf team back into the match. The Gulf team had a number of speedy players and showed that mistakes could be costly.

In the semi-final, the girls from Tukkies were off their game and lost to the French team in their second match against the national side (26-5). This loss was seen as surprising by commentators. France went on to win the final against Wooden Spoon (19-0) an invitational side from the UK.

The Tukkies Women's team are finally ready to depart to Dubai to take part in the International Women's invitation section of the Emirates Sevens tournament to be held from the 3rd to the 5th of December. After the loss of two key players, one to injury (Yolanda Meiring) and one due to unavailablity (Nicolene Lubbe), the rest of the squad finished their final preparations on Monday and will depart from Johannesburg at 10:35 on Wednesday the second.

From the onset, the team also struggled to secure sponsors for the tournament, although the team has successfully competed in a number of international events. What makes matters worse for this successful team, is the fact that their budget for 2009 was zero to start off with. The team is in fact kept together by the efforts of their coaching staff, Riaan van der Merwe and Konrad Lotter.

The team will play France, Thailand, the USA, and the Moscow region (Russia) in the pools stages.

Despite the struggle to secure finances for this event, the team is positive and want to make a real impact on the international stage.

Squad: Ilse van Staden, Pulane Motluong (Capt), Onicca Moaga, Jennifer Modiba, Annelize Moore, Marlien Cronje, Lala Vazi, Veronica Malantswane, Mapule Moremi, Mariska Loots, Kerry Townley, Cindy Cant.

On Saturday 25 July 2009, the Tukkies development team beat a team Tswaiing 46-0. The team from Tukkies was asked at a very late stage (the Thursday before the game), to take part in the match. With only one practice session to prepare for the specific match, the girls from Tukkies performed exceptionally well to beat Tswaiing with such a convincing margin.

The Tukkies Women's team was invited to take part in the annual tournament played in Reunion in the place of the Springbok Women's side. With their performance in the tournament, the side from Pretoria University showed that they deserved their spot and also showed that they could be competitive against any international side. (The tournament did not start without incident for the girls from Tukkies, as the team lost one of their star players even before leaving, due to a passport that was not ready in time.)

In the preliminary matches all teams played each other to determine the finalists for the tournament. Tukkies kicked off their tournament by beating Reunion 15-5 in their first match. In the other two matches Tukkies first beat Mayotte by 55-0 and then had a tough encounter against a strong team from Madagascar, beating them 10-0.


Tukkies then faced France in the "final", with both teams unbeaten. With the kick-off the ball came off the side off the boot of Yolanda Meiring, exposing the field on both sides. Tukkies managed to cover and turned the ball over, opening the scoring to lead France by 7 points after a few minutes. While on attack Tukkies then turned the ball over allowing the French side to score, just before half-time. Just on half-time Pulane Motluong from Tukkies also received a yellow card for what appeared to be a legal tackle. (Half-time score 7-7)

After half-time the game was extremely tight and the ball came loose after a French player was tackled. The referee ruled play-on and one of the French players picked the ball up and scored, giving France the lead for the first time in the match. France broke through again just before the end of the match and the French player was tackled on the try-line with the ball being dislodged in the process of scoring. The try was however awarded and the French won the match with a final score of 19-7.


(The Tukkies team and their management would like to thank SARU for the opportunity to take part in the tournament and for the opportunity to gain valuable experience from competing at this level. We also would like to thank out sponsor "Healthtech: IceMan Herbal cooling Gel" for additional assistance that made this trip possible.)

THE South African Rugby Union (Saru) has named 38 players as part of its National Women’s High Performance Squad.

The aim behind this initiative is to ensure that the selected squad receives the necessary assistance ahead of the Women’s Rugby World Cup next year in England.

Saru also confirmed the group will attend the first high performance training camp from May 8 to 10 in Cape Town, where players will undergo extensive medical and fitness assessments.

The squad is: Yolanda Meiring, Onnica Moaga, Cindy Cant, Ilse van Staden, Nicolene Lubbe (Blue Bulls - All from Tukkies); Natasha Hofmeester, Cherne Roberts (Boland) Portia Jonga, Ziyande Tywaleni, Mandisa Williams, Fundiswa Plaatjie (Border) Cebisa Kula, Lamla Momoti, Saloma Booysen, Zandile Nojoko, Marie-Lee Erasmus, Lorinda Brown, Phumeza Gadu, Zenay Jordaan, Charmaine Kayser, Ramona Brown, Namhla Siyolo, Nomathamsanqa Faleni (Eastern Province) Matshidiso Bojozi (Falcons) Michelle Kona, Belinda Etie, Marilize Jordaan (Free State) Nombulelo Mayongo (Griffons) Nelisiwe Cele, Dolly Mavumengwana, Wendy Khumalo, Zinhle Ndawonde, Claudia Thompson, Lusanda Mtiya (KwaZulu- Natal) Aimee Barrett, Joelene Wehr, Nadine Barnard, Nosipho Poswa (Western Province). — Sapa

A new photo gallery added on 2009-04-28!!!

The first gallery of the Rugby World Cup 2009 photos is available.

The photos were only resized for album purposes and are therefore in a 886 X 591 pixel format and 150dpi. This means that the images are not the full quality. Higher quality images for PC will be available soon for download for private use only.


The first number of images, up to about photo 27 set the scene for the World Cup event and from image 28 onwards most of the photos are of the Women's event.

You can access the gallery directly by clicking on the following link: RWC2009

(All photos were taken by Konrad Lotter and no images may be reproduced without the written consent of the photographer. High quality images can be supplied on request.)

Training times are fixed for Mondays and Wednesdays. Additional training times will be supplied at practices in the lead-up to specific matches. This may include training sessions on Thursdays or Saturdays.

Anyone interested can join us. No previous experience required.

Training times:

Monday:
New players: 17:00 - 18:00
Senior players: 18:00 - 19:30

Wednesday:
New Players: 17:00 - 18:00
Senior players: 18:00 - 19:30
(The new players are welcome to join the senior players for fitness training during the first part of the second session.)

Venue: L C de Villiers A-field (next to High Performance Center)

Try to be there early as specific skills sessions start at 17:00. This includes kicking, hand-eye co-ordination, catching the high ball and other skills. Talk to the coaching staff if you need specific skills training relevant to your playing position.