World Rugby backs Zim to excel

29 Mar, 2020 - 00:03 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

Petros Kausiyo
Sports Editor

THEIR players and coaches may be under the Covid-19-induced lockdown, but the Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) have had something to smile about in these tough times sweeping across the globe after World Rugby backed the country to become the second-best nation playing the game in Africa after South Africa.

Dave Gilbert, a World Rugby representative who was recently in the country, believes Zimbabwe had such an abundance of talent that only needed to be used to its full potential for the country to, “with time’’, reach the kind of levels that reigning world champions, South Africa, have scaled.

Gilbert said he had observed the country’s huge potential, which he said stretched from the schools’ game right through to the Sables.

Over the years, Zimbabwe has been unfortunate to lose some of its finest talent — which include Takudzwa Ngwenya, Tendai “Beast’’ Mtawarira, Tonderai Chavhanga, Brian Mujati, David Pocock, Adrian Garvey, Gary Teichman and Bobby Skinstaad — to countries such as the United States, South Africa and Australia.

However, Gilbert, who is no stranger to Zimbabwe having grown up in the country, says he has seen enough to be sufficiently convinced about Zimbabwe’s capacity to surpass Namibia, under whose shadow the Sables have been living for over a decade now.

Gilbert also paid tribute to Aaron Jani’s leadership at the ZRU, which the World Rugby and Africa Rugby representative said epitomised the resilience exhibited by many Zimbabweans.

“It is always a pleasure to come back to Zimbabwe. I was born here and I still belong here. My father was a teacher at Prince Edward many years ago,’’ Gilbert said.

The ZRU’s resilience, he added, had charmed him, especially at a time when many unions and clubs around the world are battling for survival.

“Rugby is getting tougher to run because finances are huge, and how Zimbabwe is surviving is amazing. How people in Zimbabwe are resilient is so amazing. I have never seen people who have to go through so much and still stay up there,” he said.

“It is not just about the resilience . . .  Zimbabwe should be number two in Africa in terms of rugby. The talent that you have from schools across the board is amazing.

“You have a very functional executive and in many countries that I have visited people are always fighting, but here it is different.

“There is no doubt in my mind Zimbabwe should be second to South Africa because you have more potential than Namibia and any country.

“I think it is a matter of time before you can achieve that. If you apply your minds to it, you can achieve because it needs unity right through the country.

“I will report to Rugby Africa and World Rugby favourably about the state of Zimbabwe rugby because it is indeed in a good state,’’ Gilbert said.

ZRU chief executive Sifiso Made said despite the challenges confronting the union, they were happy to see the number of local rugby players increasing over the years.

“The operating environment for sport in Zimbabwe continues to provide challenges of sustainability. The underperformance of the economy as a whole compounds further the challenges that we faced in 2019.

“These challenges have exerted incredible pressure on the ZRU’s already challenged financial resources. The organisation continues to wade through these, but on a positive note, the ZRU remains focused,’’ Made said.

“Administration and governance in 2019 proved to be very challenging in terms of the overall administration of the union, but there are notable positives that I need to mention. The year saw the union engage the services of a media consultant, a temporary database volunteer and a marketing/commercial consultant.

“However, the end of the year saw us lose two very accomplished and dedicated individuals, namely the director of rugby and a union administrator. We were able to register on an electronic database known as Scrum IT to ensure that we electronically keep a record of all our players.”

ZRU managed to spread the game to different non-traditional rugby playing areas, provinces and schools.

“We continue to strive to ensure that we get the game of rugby to be played in all corners of the country, especially in non-traditional rugby playing schools,” said Made.

There are presently 32 895 registered players in both schools and clubs across the country, while non-registered players stand at 14 556. Of the 47 451 registered and non-registered players, 7 737 are registered school players.

Those who are not registered stand at 6 098. Further, there are more than 30 rugby clubs around the country, with 1 098 registered coaches.

With World Rugby giving them a massive vote of confidence, the ZRU are not only walking with a spring in their step, but are confident national coach Brendon Dawson and his Sables will both retain the Victoria Cup and reach the ultimate target by making the cut for the 2023 World Cup.

But that is only when normalcy returns after the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

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