De Souza enjoys challenges on all fronts

Sports Reporter

THERE is an argument to be made that Zimbabwe Under-20 rugby coach Shaun De Souza could very well be the busiest man in sport.

He will pull double duty at this weekend’s Nedbank Rugby Challenge Cup, where he will be in charge of the Junior Sables’ team and oversee operations as tournament director.

“It’s actually three hats — don’t forget the Barthes Cup is lurking in the background,” he said.

“We are mere days away from the Nedbank Rugby Challenge and everything seems to be in order. All the participating teams have confirmed their participation, as Manicaland have been training, while Matabeleland recently held their trials.

“I recently took a tour around the capital, and Old Georgians, Old Hararians and Harare Sports Club have been busy at work.”

Eight teams are expected to take part in this year’s edition of the competition, which will be held over two weekends — March 16 and March 23 — at Harare Sports Club.

These include the traditional heavyweights Old Georgians, Old Hararians, Harare Sports Club, Pitbulls/Harare Select and the Nedbank Under-20 Junior Sables team.

Also confirmed are the Matabeleland and Manicaland select sides.

The Matabeleland teams will comprise players from Old Miltonians, Warriors, Highlanders, Gweru Sports Club, Mimosa and Zvishavane, while the Manicaland team will have players from Mutare Sports Club, Spartans, Africa University, Rusape and Mutare Polytechnic.

The Zimbabwe Under-20 training squad have been divided into two slots — the Nedbank Under-20 Junior Sables team and a Nedbank High-Performance team.

De Souza takes charge of the Junior Sables team, while Marvin Chirume will be in charge of the High-Performance side.

“There is a lot of excitement within camp at the moment as we gear up for the Nedbank Rugby Challenge, one of the key tournaments for our Barthes Trophy preparations,” added De Souza.

“We have divided our training into two teams (Whites and Greens) and will play a scrimmage game, during which we will identify those who will make up the Junior Sables and High-Performance teams.

“Other than that, we are 80 percent complete with our preparations for the Nedbank Rugby Challenge.

“Missing from the tournament will be a couple of players who have already notified us of their unavailability due to club or school commitments.

“We are currently waiting on Huntley Masterson and have already lost out on Edward Sigauke, who is away with the Cheetahs in Ghana at the African Games.

“Huntsman Greaves and Martel Wolfenden are the other two players unavailable for the Nedbank Rugby Challenge, but we expect them back from club duty in Portugal and the United Kingdom afterwards,” he said.

De Souza also confirmed that the sticky issues behind Zimbabwe hosting this year’s Barthes Trophy have since been resolved.

“Yeah, we are definitely hosting the Barthes Trophy as I currently have the confirmation documents from Rugby Africa with me,” he said.

“We expect to have confirmation of the actual venue after the local organising committee meets and deliberates on the issue.”