Moka Rangers, under the responsibility of Patrice François, will be the fourth team to join the national women’s rugby championship in September.
“The idea of setting up a women’s rugby team in Moka has been on my mind for about 4 years but since I was the only educator at the time, it was difficult to commit the time to launch the project. With the support of Gérald Jetin from the Moka Rangers Sports Club, we are going to set up a group of young players from the East (Flacq, Saint Pierre and Moka), where the University of Mauritius is currently the only club playing in the women’s senior league,” says Patrice François.
The Moka Rangers Sports Club is already represented at national level in cycling/mountain biking, trail running and swimming, and is now expanding into rugby. “The club will be supported by Sabrina Rabot, who will lead the women’s rugby section. To date, we have around 20 women rugby players representing the Moka Rangers Sports Club. We will focus on women’s sevens and if there is an increase in the number of girls, the club will then be represented by a rugby union team,” he adds.
“This will give further momentum to women’s rugby as we currently have only three teams playing in the league. I will initially help structure the team before the federation takes over to continue the work to have the girls ready in September.”
Patrice François is also the U18 national coach and wants to take advantage of rugby’s renewed impulse to go ahead with this project born in Moka. “I believe that Mauritius will have a say in the next Indian Ocean Island Games. We have some good players, especially from Rodrigues, who are physically stronger than some of our players in Mauritius. With the national technical director, Jean Baptiste Gobelet, we have a year and a half to set up a competitive team. We are getting back to business and serious work through intensive training. We should not forget that Mauritius was run over by Madagascar in an African rugby competition last year.”