Budding rugby stars blossom at regional women’s tournament
Women's rugby development continues to be implemented at grassroots level in Knysna, with the latest initiative coming in the form of the TWRA Primary Schools Girls Rugby Programme for U14 girls.
The programme, a 10-a-side tournament that kicked off on 27 October, brings together U14 girl teams from four of Greater Knysna's primary schools – Hornlee, Sunridge, Fraaisig and Rheenendal. The girls have been taking part in group-stage games for the past three weeks, and these games have been used by Aschin Klein – head coach of Titan's Women's Rugby Academy (TWRA) and organiser of the programme – and his fellow coaching staff to select a regional Knysna team to take on a regional George team.
The final between the two school teams that have performed the best in the group stages will be played this weekend between Hornlee and Fraaisig, while the regional teams have been vying it out in their own fixtures that featured the usual 15-a-side games.
The first game was played at the Knysna High School sports fields on Wednesday 6 November, when the George regional team defeated Knysna 34-0. The two regional teams played again on 13 November, but unfortunately these results were not forthcoming before going to print.
The coaches of the Knysna regional team form part of TWRA's Female Coaches Development programme, and according to
Klein the structure is set up so as to provide the leastexperienced coaches some experience alongside the most-experienced coaches. "Our U18 high school head coach is the primary school assistant coach, while our most experienced primary school boys' coach is their mentor coach," Klein explained.