Rwandan rookies win praise from top stars
Rave reviews and an open invitation to play at the Cape Town Tens awaited Rwanda after a glorious debut performance at the Kowloon RugbyFest at King's Park yesterday.
Only a try from former Hong Kong flyhalf Justin Temara prevented Rwanda from a dream finish as they narrowly lost the Plate final, 7-0 to the ARC All-Stars.
'It has been a great day for us: we played six pool games, winning four, and got to the Plate final, which we lost narrowly,' said Rwanda player-coach Gerald Nsenga. 'But overall I'm very happy for the boys: we've come to Hong Kong for the first time and got all the way to the Plate final.'
The Rwandans were then stunned when ex-Springboks captain Bobby Skinstad, highly impressed, invited them to Cape Town. 'It's a fantastic story how the Rwandans came to be playing here, I love it. We'd love to see them at the Cape Town Tens, they've got an open invitation and we'd waive the entrance fee,' he said.
Another fan was ex-British Lion John Bentley, who said: 'They have been fantastic. Their core skills were excellent, and they were very comfortable with the ball in hand and they were quick. They still need to work on the technical side ... but that is to be expected.'
