Rugby union

The Times March 24, 2006 Hungarian girls catch on fast to sevens skills By Matthew Pryor TRANSYLVANIAN boys, Hungarian girls and two teams from the South African townships helped to turn the Wooden Spoon National Schools Sevens into an international festival yesterday in southwest London. They were not there as tourists, either, as the Magyars, from Hungary, an under-18 girls’ team, showed by winning one of their three group games. Pant, from Mid-Glamorgan, did not know what had hit them. “I just woke up one day and I was pretty angry,” Reka Kovacs, 16, said, explaining why she took to rugby. Tibor Barczai, whose company, Move One, sponsored the trip, said: “Rugby is small in Hungary, but we said the biggest chance to make the second day is with the girls.” Although the Magyars, who had a young team aged 14 to 17, lost 27-5 to Epsom in their last game, Jenny Sutton, the England women’s grand-slam winning lock, was impressed. “They showed real skill with passing out of the tackle and a good range of catching, things that young girls here are not always good at,” she said. Laganya, from Nyanga, a township in Cape Town, won three of their four group games against the likes of Loughborough Grammar School and RGS Guildford.