The Sunday Mail
Deputy Sports Editor
FOR many athletes, the trauma of seeing their knee dislocated and out of place could be enough to force them to walk away from sport.
But Tadius Dzandiwandira is anything but normal.
The “Boxer”, as he is affectionately known in rugby circles, still has the courage to lace up his boots and run onto the rugby pitch five years after suffering what many believed to be a career-ending injury.
“I dislocated my knee and the injury was nasty,” said the former Churchill Boys High School learner.
“I was playing for Primrose in South Africa and came out the worst from a tackle from an opposing player.
“I remember writing myself off as soon as I realised that my knee was out of position,” he said.
What was to follow was a long period of rehabilitation.
Tales of his retirement were grossly exaggerated, if not fabricated.
“I did not retire as such; it was just the injury,” said Dzandiwandira.
“I got injured and then the Covid pandemic put all sports on halt.
“When you think about it, the coronavirus actually helped me to recover, as it gave me more time to rest and less time to rush my comeback.
“If the virus had not hit, I would have probably tried playing again (before I was ready) and maybe injured myself some more,” he said. The 30-year-old is now back on the field and playing arguably some of the best rugby of his career.
He has since revealed that he wants to make up for lost time.
“In my mind, yes, I have thought about it (retirement). “Some of my former teammates have retired, and continue to do so, and I also think about it here and there. “However, what keeps me moving and getting better is the fact that I last played rugby in 2017, and that is over four years ago.
“I have a lot to make up for.
“You can ask me again, maybe in a year or two,” he said. Last year, he was instrumental in Harare Sports Club’s success in the Sevens’ circuit.
Sportivo won the Paramount Garments, Exide and Sable Chicken Sevens tournaments, as well as the Zambia Independence Sevens tourney.
He has even worked his way back into the Cheetahs squad, where he has met mixed results.
Dzandiwandira is expected to lead a rather youthful team as co-captain alongside Godfrey Magaramombe to the Dubai Sevens Invitational tournament slated for December 1-3.
It provides the perfect opportunity for him to end his year on a high, especially after a less-than-desirable outing at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in South Africa in September, where Zimbabwe finished 23rd out of 24 teams.
The Cheetahs managed a solitary 31-17 victory over Jamaica at the World Cup in Cape Town. They went down to Canada (10-23), South Korea (19-21) and Hong Kong (0-28).
“We didn’t really achieve what we wanted and set out to do at the World Cup, but we take it as a team and just try to keep our heads high,” he said.
“We have a young team and there were a lot of improvements and positives to take away from that tournament.
“It was good to see a lot of the younger guys putting their hands up and this helped us a lot during the recent Zambezi Challenge,” he said.
The Cheetahs met with mixed fortunes at the Zambezi Challenge at Harare Sports Club last weekend.
As a positive, they finally managed to get one up on their rivals Spartans from Botswana, but ultimately failed to capture the cup.
The Cheetahs convincingly beat Spartans 36-17, but narrowly fell 19-17 to Germany in the final.
“It definitely felt good beating Spartans. “The rivalry started long back before this current group got together. The Spartans beat Cheetahs, I think that was around 2019, and they did it again at the beginning of this year.
“As a result of those two wins, there had been a lot of talk from their end, and it was good that we finally managed to beat them convincingly and silence them,” Dzandiwandira said.
Twitter: @Nashaar
