KNYSNA NEWS - The Titans Women's Rugby Academy (WRA) team started their 2018 rugby season off with a preseason friendly against Kwaru recently.

The Kwaru team is the third-best women's rugby club team in the country and hail from the Eastern Cape. 

The game was played at the beautiful Smutsville sports field in Sedgefield.

The visitors, who have several Springboks and high-performance athletes in their squad, totally outplayed the Knysna side in an entertaining encounter that saw Kwaru winning the game 49-0.

Kwaru scored first shortly after the kick-off following some unsuccessful high-risk rugby by the Titans, who tried to run the ball out of their own goal area. 

A resulting knock-on saw Kwaru turn over ball possession that resulted in the first try of the match.

Titans launched a few attacks from the restart lead by captain Marlene Adams, which created Titans' first opportunity to score. .

Siphenathi Yeko tried a long pass to speedster Faith Gosling, but a small knock saw a turnover 5m away from the try line, and Kwaru started a counterattack that resulted in their second try of the game.

Kwaru went into halftime with a 24-0 lead and a player in the bin with a yellow card.

Titans started the second half with a bang but could not convert pressure into points, and just as in the first half, Kwaru started to move through their paces and broke the defence line a few times to score their first of five tries in the second half.

The game was halted halfway through the second half after a suspected neck injury to Titans hooker Chanelle Jacobs. 

She was safely removed from the field and transported to hospital by ER24.

"Chanelle was admitted to the Knysna Provincial Hospital for observation on Saturday evening but discharged Sunday morning and will be out of action for about two months," said coach Aschin Klein. 

Article: Aschin Klein

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