Many Accolades for Sevens Rugby School Sports Championships

Team Western Cape Sevens Rugby were in fine form at the Western Cape School Sports Championships last week. Coming away with one silver and three gold medals the teams lit up the field with some exciting running Rugby. New Orleans High School crowned a great competition off with a dominating 49-0 win in the final against the defending champions, Nelspruit Pumas.

New Orleans coach, Butch Green said: “I wasn’t surprised that we won, but I was very impressed with the way the boys implemented the game plan perfectly.”  New Orleans scored a staggering 420 points and conceded only 19 in the tournament, whitewashing all but two of the teams they played. “Our toughest game was against De Aar High School, we won that game 22-12, the boys really showed their fighting spirit in that game,” said Green. Green and centre, Keenan Williams also took away the coach and player of the tournament respectively. 

In a tournament marred by numerous injuries the New Orleans boys seemed to cope with both the heat and the intensity better than any of the other teams. Butch says this was down to the conditioning, preparation and attitude of the players. “The schedule was tough, having to play so many games per day but we had a good period of preparation and were used to heat, coming from Paarl. We also had one of our old boys, former Blitzbok, Danwill Demas come in and teach the boys some of the finer points of sevens Rugby,” said Green.

Vice captain, Josh Engelbrecht,16 , said that it was the teams work ethic and teamwork that meant the difference between them and their opponents. “We had no individuals in our team, everyone worked hard together,” he said.