PREPARATIONS AHEAD OF THE NEW SEASON. “Today is when we’ve kicked off training for the Rugby Afrique Sevens which will be held in Tunisia on the 16th and 17th of September. Today we are starting with fitness assessment because we’ve not seen players for five months so we want to know what they’ve been up to for the last five months and then to assess who we need to work on and who will be moving forward with?” Said Helen Buteme – Coach, Lady Cranes 7s.

HOW IS THE TEAM SHAPING UP? “We will be training two times a week over the next two weeks and then after that, we will be training three times a week because the first two Saturdays, the players are going to be involved in UYU 7th Tournament and then from there, we will need to look at the players’ during the game situation and see how they are adapting to perhaps the style we want them to play and perhaps look at outstanding players whom we hadn’t noticed before.” Replied Helen Buteme.

RUGBY AFRIQUE TOURNAMENT IN TUNISIA... “This isn’t simply a Rugby African Tournament in Tunisia, it is also doubling as World Cup qualifiers so the country that finishes number one, will go to the World Cup next year in the USA. And so, we will be battling with seven other teams in Tunisia and I guess the toughest competitors that we will have, will be South Africa of course, Kenya, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe. All other teams will be tough as well but I think those are the toughest teams that we will meet there.” Said, Helen Buteme.

WHAT AREAS ARE YOU LOOKING AT IMPROVING? “We are going to focus on our defensive patterns and then on the style of play; we want to play a lot of running Rugby because we have a lot of speed and we want a lot of thinking players in this team, very creative players. But at the same time, our players tend to be a bit timid going into contact, so that’s an area which we want to up their physicality while at the same time ensuring we still play the same style of Rugby that we like and hitting the gaps using our speed.” Replied Helen Buteme.