Botswana–closing the gap

At the end of this month south and east Africas womens rugby national sevens teams will compete for the CAR Africa (South) Sevens and a place in Africas World Cup qualifier next year. It promioses to be an intriguing and exciting tournament, bringing together established nations - such as South Africa, Kenya and Uganda and new, developing nations such as Zambia, Madagascar and the hosts, Botswana.

In the build-up for what promises to be the most important tournament in their history, ScrumQueens spoke to Botswanas coach, Shaun Lees.

Womens rugby is Botswana is still fairly small, Shaun told us. We currently have six clubs. These are all senior clubs - we have no juniors in the league and we only started playing full contact in 2008"

The game was introduced through Touch, and then TAG rugby - they actually had a league going from around 2005 up until I introduced contact in 2008. TAG rugby is still played in schools around the country and there is a school league with around 30 teams. The problem I face as National Coach is that there is no league between schools and links to clubs to bridge the gap, so a lot of the girls are too afraid to play full contact - that is why we have small numbers at club level.

The game is run through the Botswana Rugby Union (B.R.U). They have an A Division and B Division Leagues for the men, and the Womens league runs at the same time as the B Division though the women play only sevens at the moment.

Our targets for the future are to improve our game so that we become more competitive on the international stage. We would also like to see a gap bridged between the schools and clubs by creating a junior team that will act as a feeder team to the senior national side. We would also like to see some of our players make selection into teams and clubs overseas because I strongly believe that we have players that could play very well out there.

As a team we would like to earn the respect of the people of Botswana by becoming a winning team, and also by erasing the shadow that is cast over all sporting codes by football. The public in Botswana still believe rugby is an expatriates sport but - like local players - they are starting to embrace it.

Botswanas ambitions are high - We would like to win our tournament come October, then qualify for the world cup qualifiers, and participate in the next world cup as well as the Olympics in 2016. I would also like to see us form the first ever 15 a side team next year. Currently Africa only has three national 15's teams on the continent - South Africa, Uganda and Kenya.

However, more realistically Shaun admits that though We have done very well in tournaments across our borders by bringing back silverware from each tournament - we have brought back the shield, bowl and plate from various tournaments we have not won a cup as yet. The biggest highlight for us though, was defeating Zambia A at the Castle 7s 2010 tournament the first time Zambia have lost since women started participating in the tournament in 2006.They went on to successfully defended the cup from 2006, but we beat them in our pool match.

I have a few players to watch out for come October. Masego Aston (centre) has been with the team since 2008; Tinabo Chikani is one of the quickest props I have ever seen; Mpho Molatlhwe is one of my utility players - she is a back and forward; Tjeludo Monyai is a very nippy winger; and Keabetswe Molefi is our hooker. We have rookies Poloko Morwalela, Claire Davies and Aphelele Ngcobo who have shown great promise.

Looking beyond Botswana I still think that African womens rugby is not taken as seriously as it should - gone are those days when women sports were dull and boring. Women in sport have definitely stepped up their game. Womens rugby in Africa needs the close support of the IRB and CAR. There needs to be some form of funding that could be pushed towards development.

I do not believe that there is much of a gap between South Africa and the rest of the continent - they just have easier access to facilities and funds. I also believe that networks need to be developed between countries that are close to each other, for example in this region Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. The same for those in the north.

I see African womens rugby growing at a satisfactory pace if we get the support from the powers that be - that is much needed. I would also like to see an increase in the number of teams from Africa that can qualify for world cups - at the moment it is only two from the entire continent for the sevens World Cup, and only one for the fifteens.

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