Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho rugby sevens (7s) national team is invited for the 2019 eSwatini Rugby Sevens (7s) international tournament set for 19th December 2019. In an exclusive
interview with Informative Sports, the team’s head coach Morapeli Motaung confirmed the invitation. He however noted he is yet to select a team that will
represent Lesotho. According to Motaung, this will be their third and last tournament they will compete in for the year. In his yet to be named squad, he promised to feature new faces and pointed out that some of the
changes will be determined following the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) recruitment training commencement. “This is because some our players will be recruited into the LDF team,” mentioned Motaung.
The first time the rugby 7s national team was seen in action this year was during the 2019 Rugby Africa Central Sevens (7s) games held at Mantšonyane, Lesotho on August
31st to September 1st. The tournament saw Lesotho winning against Mozambique and eSwatini. Lesotho
welcomed Mozambique with a 21-5 defeat before outclassing eSwatini 31-0 in their second game of the tournament. In their third game, Lesotho stamped their dominance over eSwatini by 24-19.
In the final game Lesotho continued to run riot as they won 29-5 against Mozambique. The following week the team jetted off to Zambia for the 2019 Zambia Sevens
International Rugby Tournament played in Windhoek on September 6th-7th. From that tournament the team came home empty handed after they finished 6th out of ten countries who were fighting for honours at the tournament.
This was Lesotho’s third appearance in the tournament since their first debut in 2017 at which they finished last. However, they improved their standings last year claiming position eight.
The Lesotho 7s team was only formed in 2017 and has already managed to have one trophy in their trophies cabinet. Motaung noted they have made a significant progress to boost the team’s performance and are
thus looking forward to end the year on a high note. Meanwhile the Lesotho Rugby 15 aside from the national team Likatola, did not compete in any official games this year.
Motaung who is also the Federation of Lesotho Rugby (FLR) Public Relations Officer (PRO) remarked that there were only a few regional and continental 15 aside
competitions as the continent (Africa) declared earlier that more focus will this year be placed on developing 7 aside. He added that they could not even go for international friendly games due to financial challenges, but anticipates that next year the team will be in full swing.
