Langa RFC had a dream debut in the second edition of the Western Province Rugby Football Union (WPRFU) 7s series, in Goodwood.
They now find themselves in the last-round of 32 after picking up seven wins, nine defeats and playing to one draw in the five-week round-robin stages. This saw them finishing in 10th place in pool A.
This year’s competition saw 36 teams competing. Twenty-five of them are Super League sides and the rest are clubs that play in the City, Southern and Northern leagues.
Clubs were divided in two groups of 18 with the bottom two of pool A and B being eliminated after the pool stages were finished, at the weekend.
The boys’ in black and red had a great final round-robin weekend winning three of their four matches.
They started off on a sour note going down 40-0 to Macassar. That was followed by 36-5, 24-14 and 19-10 victories over Young Stars, Strand and Elsies River, respectively.
Coach Andile Makonfane said they ended the round-robin stages with a bang despite the defeat against Macassar.
“We wanted to end on a high and take the momentum into the final week. I told my players that we should make up those points after the defeat to Macassar,” he said.
This will now see Langa facing rivals Kylemore in the last-round of 32, who they defeated twice this season, once in the WPRFU Super League C and once in the WPRFU President’s Cup quarter-finals.
Makonfane said they won’t take Kylemore lightly because 7s is a completely different ball game.
“The victories against Kylemore we won narrowly and it could have gone any way.
“We will give our best and hopefully it will be enough to see us progress to the next-round,” he said.
Langa got their WPFRU 7s series off to a slow start as they only picked up their first win in the third week of the competition, against Titans. From there they managed to pick up six further victories.
“Once we picked up that first victory, the team spirit was high, the players were motivated and determined,” said Makonfane, who hopes to have a 7s programme at Langa next year.
“The goal will be to compete with the big guys like False Bay and Maties in the next two years.
“This tournament has helped us well in preparing for next year’s SLC campaign,” he said.
Langa are not only doing well in the WPRFU 7s but also did well in the WPRFU Super League C, finishing in fourth place behind Franschhoek United, Paarl and champions, Rangers.
They were also losing semi-finalists in the WPRFU SLC President’s Cup top eight competition. The tournament was for the top eight sides in SLC.
Last year, we saw Maties, Durbell, Bellville and False Bay crowned, cup, plate, shield and bowl champions, respectively.