Border women clubs chase top prize money
BORDER women’s rugby clubs look forward to a fruitful season of the national women’s club rugby championships as they started their games last week at Absa Stadium and this year the stakes are high as a high cash prize is on the line.
For the first time in history this year’s edition will witness winners walking away with R10 000 in cash while runners-up will receive R5 000.
Other prizes include a floating trophy and medals.
The team who go through unbeaten in East London will go head to head with the finalists from Mthatha to determine the overall winner of the season.
Border Women’s rugby head Mandisa Williams said this was a milestone for women’s rugby because this will motivate and improve the team’s performance.
This seems to be a winning strategy as teams have already shown what they are capable of.
The Hurricanes Club opened the season with a bang compared to their performance in previous years.
The team went head-to-head with the University of Fort Hare (UFH) women’s team but were defeated, although they did not give up easily. The match ended in a 22-12 win for Fort Hare.
“The Hurricanes pulled out a good performance because previously their games were a walkover [for the other team] and this year they showed signs of huge improvement,” Williams said.
She concurred that almost all the teams showed they were in the game to win it.
Since the season kicked off last week Thursday most teams look to be in form and are looking forward to the games ahead.
Other teams that played over the past week included the Peddie Women’s Club who played a friendly against the Gonubie women’s Club. Peddie won 24-8.
The Crusaders women’s team also lost to defending champions Penguins. Penguins cruised to a 59-0 victory, showing just why they lifted the trophy last year.
Ngqamakwe Club registered their first win of the season, a 29-12 triumph over Pelicans.
Another friendly game between Jongilanga Club and Hippos saw Hippos registering their first win.
This weekend will be packed with action as more teams will battle it out at the NU1 field in Mdantsane.
Teams who will be competing this weekend are, firstly, WSU Ibika who oppose the Crusaders club while Winter Rose club will face the Ngqamakwe team.
Then Pelicans will play Hurricanes while Penguins will face the UFH team.
The second round will see teams reshuffled as they continue with their fixtures.
Peddie are down to play Ngqamakwe, WSU Ibika will oppose UFH and Winter Rose will clash with Hurricanes.
Finally Penguins will with Pelicans. battle it out