Wanderers win early 10s tournament
Rugby
Unam won the women's and reserve division finals, before narrowly losing the men's premier final.
FNB Wanderers got the first bragging rights of the local 2024 rugby season when they won the Trustco United ten-a-side tournament, sponsored by Castle Lite.
The winning cheque of N$15 000 went to Wanderers as the only unbeaten team of the premier division, in the absence of the previous year’s winner FNB Kudus.
Led by prop Stefan Hattingh, Wanderers narrowly beat FNB Unam twice in the tournament by identical 12-5 margins, including in the cup final on Saturday night.
Nandivatu Karuuombe scored the first try within three minutes, diving on the ball first after a grubber by scrum-half Jacques Theron, who missed the conversion.
A penalty try soon afterwards swung the pendulum Wanderers’ way. Although the students hit back off the last move of the match with Shareave Titus’ sprint to reach the right-hand corner, they ran out of time to present a stronger challenge.
In the only semi-final (between log positions 2 and 3), Unam had narrowly eliminated the host club United. A Camlo Martin try for Unam was converted by AJ Zaahl, before Jahno du Plessis scored the potential equalising try for United. However the Philistines’ fullback Lorenzo Louis, who had a great career at Unam, did not convert.
On the Unam side, their acquisition of former Trustco United stalwarts Gerhard Thirion (hooker) and Handre Bezuidenhout (usually a centre) could add value this season. The form of speedy wings Shareave Titus and AJ Zaahl would be among other encouraging indicators to Unam’s coaches Russel van Rooi and Roger Thompson for the coming season.
• Unam’s second team took home N$10 000 by winning the reserve division, beating Wanderers II 12-5 in the final. The reserve division had the most entries, including Keetmanshoop Rams, Ocean Swallows (Lüderitz) and Okahandja Highlanders.
THE KOOPER SHOW
Unam celebrated more success in the women’s final, beating United 12-5 in the final.
Richardine Gaya put United ahead with an unconverted try, but Unam Steenbokkies found their rhythm to work Nr. 8 Mandy Hansen over foa try she could not convert. After the 5-5 halftime, the winning try was scored by Faith Tjambari, wearing the 6 jersey, and converted by Michelle Slinger.
Due to a minor hand injury, Ivonne Kooper missed out on the final, following her immense role in earlier Unam matches.
Against Grootfontein Women, the speedster Kooper was unstoppable from the scrumhalf position, racking up five tries before halftime and another two in the second half. Michelle Slinger landed each of the seven conversions right in front of the posts, as Kooper’s runaway tries single-handedly racked up a 42-0 victory.
– Rewatch all the matches: facebook.com/SportWrapNS/live_videos/
The winning cheque of N$15 000 went to Wanderers as the only unbeaten team of the premier division, in the absence of the previous year’s winner FNB Kudus.
Led by prop Stefan Hattingh, Wanderers narrowly beat FNB Unam twice in the tournament by identical 12-5 margins, including in the cup final on Saturday night.
Nandivatu Karuuombe scored the first try within three minutes, diving on the ball first after a grubber by scrum-half Jacques Theron, who missed the conversion.
A penalty try soon afterwards swung the pendulum Wanderers’ way. Although the students hit back off the last move of the match with Shareave Titus’ sprint to reach the right-hand corner, they ran out of time to present a stronger challenge.
In the only semi-final (between log positions 2 and 3), Unam had narrowly eliminated the host club United. A Camlo Martin try for Unam was converted by AJ Zaahl, before Jahno du Plessis scored the potential equalising try for United. However the Philistines’ fullback Lorenzo Louis, who had a great career at Unam, did not convert.
On the Unam side, their acquisition of former Trustco United stalwarts Gerhard Thirion (hooker) and Handre Bezuidenhout (usually a centre) could add value this season. The form of speedy wings Shareave Titus and AJ Zaahl would be among other encouraging indicators to Unam’s coaches Russel van Rooi and Roger Thompson for the coming season.
• Unam’s second team took home N$10 000 by winning the reserve division, beating Wanderers II 12-5 in the final. The reserve division had the most entries, including Keetmanshoop Rams, Ocean Swallows (Lüderitz) and Okahandja Highlanders.
THE KOOPER SHOW
Unam celebrated more success in the women’s final, beating United 12-5 in the final.
Richardine Gaya put United ahead with an unconverted try, but Unam Steenbokkies found their rhythm to work Nr. 8 Mandy Hansen over foa try she could not convert. After the 5-5 halftime, the winning try was scored by Faith Tjambari, wearing the 6 jersey, and converted by Michelle Slinger.
Due to a minor hand injury, Ivonne Kooper missed out on the final, following her immense role in earlier Unam matches.
Against Grootfontein Women, the speedster Kooper was unstoppable from the scrumhalf position, racking up five tries before halftime and another two in the second half. Michelle Slinger landed each of the seven conversions right in front of the posts, as Kooper’s runaway tries single-handedly racked up a 42-0 victory.
– Rewatch all the matches: facebook.com/SportWrapNS/live_videos/
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