FQM Rugby 7’s Tournament

Saturday 28th of February, the Amano Rugby team took part in the First Quantum Mining 7’s tournament; hosted by Simba School. There were 9 other schools present which was a mixture of both ISAZ and Government schools. As there were so many schools the teams were split into two groups, each consisting of 5 teams. In our pool Amano faced Kansenshi, Chiwala, Mpelembe and Trident. Each game lasted 10 minutes with 5 minute halves.
Our first game was yet again against Mpelembe. It was a fairly even game, but unlike last time we managed to draw 7 all. Our next game was Trident, they were in shape both strategically and physically and because of this they managed to score an extremely early try putting them in the lead. Amano managed to fight back and score against them but unfortunately, Trident scored a late try from a tap-kick penalty and we lost the game 11-6.

Front 3 L-R: James, Joshua and Caleb

As a team this made us come together and realize our mistakes. Our next two games were against Chiwala and Kansenshi. We were able to capitalize off of our advantages, these being fitness and speed. We beat Chiwala 10-0 and Kansenshi 18-0. However, I would like to mention that in our last game against Kansenshi they gave us a run for our money as the game turned fierce and additionally physical in the last few moments.

James scoring against Kansenshi

The two wins, 1 draw and a loss, managed to put us through to the plate final, for third place. We were to face Chifubu nicknamed the ‘all blacks’ after the New Zealand team and their all black kit. This was our toughest game of the tournament as we had to really fight for the plate. Chifubu also managed another early try because of poor defence and the team being half asleep. We fought back with all we had and scored two tries with the addition of a conversion. This gave us the lead and we won that game 11-10. [All kicks at goal only scored 1 point]

3rd place Plate Winners

What I can say about the tournament is that it was much more difficult than the previous ISAZ sevens. In light of there being 10 teams taking part some of the boys we played were possibly over age. I did see some of our boys really shine during the tournament, Andy and James in particular as well as Joshua going straight for the older lads. But I can only pick one player of the tournament and that would be Andy Chonde.

Andy making a nuisance of himself

The team came 3rd out of 10 schools. With Trident taking 1st place and Simba 2nd place. So with that said I would like to say ‘thanks’ to the team for their effort, Mr. Grove for coaching us and a massive thank you to God for enabling us to play such a game and for allowing us to go that far.

Reported by Ethan Milner



An additional thanks goes to First Quantum Mining Company and Tag Trust UK for sponsoring the event with prizes, referees and food. We are very grateful. Well done boys especially as you had run and won the Inter-school Cross country the day before. An excellent achievement.
Mr S Grove