BOTSWANA RUGBY 7’S TEAMS RETURN HOME WITH SILVERWARE

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  The Botswana National women and men 7’s team returned home from the CAR and Castle Sevens in Zambia over the past weekend. The men’s team turned out to be the winners of the bowl, the first silverware for the Vultures 7’s at international level.
  
  

  The tournament held two separate competitions, one for the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) and the other as the annual Castle Sevens Tournament. The CAR internationals played will serve as rankings for the African teams that participated for next years qualifiers for the next Olympic Games and 2013 Rugby World Cup. The CAR internationals merged into the Castle Sevens tournament and saw Botswana finishing as winners of the Bowl section for the weekend.
  
  

  As from one of the players from the women’s team, they are very thankful for the opportunity of representing Botswana at Zambia. Even though they lost, they gained at least some experience that will improve their rugby before the upcoming tournament in October in Botswana. The weaknesses they had was lack of tackling. She said they stayed a long time without practicing and it was the first time they played as a team so the game was not up to standard. From all this, they have learnt that, a lot of practice and teamwork will help them improve their game. The assistant coach not saying much he said: “we should keep it together with more training sections, play a lot of games and go forward”. He also said that he recommends that fields must be made that can accommodate the smooth run and play of the game. We will be hosting a tournament very soon in October and we do not have a field yet. “The other thing that we are running short of, is sponsors and encouragement from Batswana” he said.
  
  

  This is the first time that Botswana 7s rugby has finished a top of the silver on offer at an international competition and definitely shows Botswana 's rugby growth and potential that lies ahead. Coach Andrew Paxinos of the men’s team was delighted with the teams achievement and praised the players for their efforts and commitment shown over the two days of competition. He also highlighted that winning the bowl came after only three weeks of the team being together and pointed out that given time he believes the team can only go further and prove a formidable force in the African region. "It was the first time that Botswana has beaten Zambia and Namibia ," Paxinos said, "and I am excited about what the future may hold for the players involved in the current 7s setup".
  

Results for the men’s tournament stood as follows:




Day 1 - Saturday 27th August




Botswana	vs	Zimbabwe	0 - 31	Lost
Botswana	vs	Zambia	12 - 14	Lost
Botswana	vs	Namibia	28 - 12	Won
Botswana	vs	Madagascar	5 - 24	Lost





Day 2 - Sunday 28th August




Botswana	vs	Zambia	14 - 12	Won
Botswana	vs	Goshawks	19 - 22	Lost
Botswana	vs	Matabeleland	24 - 14	Won





Results for the women’s tournament stood as follows:




Botswana	vs	Zambia A	5 - 22	Lost
Botswana	vs	Zambia B	22 - 0	Won
Botswana	vs	Zimbabwe	5 - 14	Lost




Sevens in Botswana is definitely on the up for now and provided we can retain and encourage the support of this section of our National Rugby only good things will follow.

The Botswana National 7s Teams would also like to acknowledge and thank their sponsors, Tala Loans, Flemming Asset Management, Turbo Agencies, Kalahari Energy, Scales and Associates and Trojan Security for scrumming down with them!