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| Women's Rugby News: Tuks Ladies impress at the Dubai sevens |  Posted on Monday 07 December 2009 - 12:34:59 by technical | | 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.
| | |   | | Tukkie Women's Team ready for Dubai Sevens | | Posted on Tuesday 01 December 2009 - 11:40:13 by technical | | 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.
| | | | | Tukkies Women's Rugby Development team performs | | Posted on Wednesday 29 July 2009 - 14:25:03 by SiteAdmin | | 
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.
| | | | | Tukkies Women shine in international tournament | | Posted on Monday 22 June 2009 - 10:13:49 by technical | | 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.)
| | | | | 38 SA women joins rugby’s elite (5 Tukkies players included in group) | | Posted on Tuesday 28 April 2009 - 12:30:27 by SiteAdmin | | 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
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