UJ clinches third spot at the women’s sevens rugby tournament

The University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) women’s rugby sevens team is on a crest of a wave following their third-place finish at the University Sport South Africa (USSA) women’s sevens rugby tournament held at Wits University recently.

The unbeaten UJ side cruised to the quarterfinals where they took on the University of  the Western Cape.

UJ team manager Tumi Leseke said they were proud of the squad’s efforts and the determination and commitment they showed.

“I feel the girls put their hearts into everything they did on Saturday and wouldn’t have changed anything,” said Leseke.

Despite suffering some injuries to frontline players, as well as conceding an early try, UJ hit back against the Cape team with their star player Vhugala Ndou scoring a hat-trick of tries to make it 19–7 at the break.

Leseke said they capitalised on that in the second half to win 38–7, with Ndou getting four tries in all.

“With the win, we came up against long-time rivals UP-Tuks in the semifinals. The match was a tough one which had the girls digging even deeper than they had the whole day, but Tuks outclassed us and won 47–0.”

UJ and the University of KwaZulu-Natal decided not to contest for the third/fourth place playoff and it was resolved that UJ would take third place.

“Of course, it would have been amazing to finally win USSA but we left it all on the field, incurring a few injuries along the way,” added Leseke.
“The girls held their heads high and believe that their chance will come again. In the end, the sport of rugby was the winner and that’s all that matters.”

Leseke said they were indebted to the university for their support and commitment to transforming rugby.
“Win or lose, we stand proud of our efforts and we always strive to be better.”

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