The Sunday News
FOUR foreign sides will grace this year’s edition of the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival which will run from 27 April to 2 May at Prince Edward High School in Harare.
Die Anker from Durban, South Africa, Namibia’s Windhoek Gymnasium, Livingstone Kolobeng College (LKC) from Gaborone, Botswana and the Botswana Under-19 national side are all billed to take part at the annual showcase.
Last year, Windhoek Gymnasium, LKC and Botswana Under-19 were the foreign teams that graced the event, which is considered to be the biggest schools rugby festival worldwide in terms of participation numbers.
In 2014, 184 teams from 132 schools drawn from all parts of the country took part while this year, a record 28 girls teams will take part.
Sebastain Garikai, the festival director said the teams were in the process of securing clearance from their respective countries to come to Zimbabwe. Garikai pointed out that they were eager to have Windhoek Gymnasium, the best rugby playing team in Namibia as well as Die Anker who are ranked number 25 in South Africa.
As has been the norm over the years, PE, led by eighth-man Kudakwashe Ndoro will play the last match of the festival on Saturday 2 May with yet to be decided opponents. Last year, the Tigers defeated Peterhouse 21-6 in the festival concluding fixture.
Garikai said for as long as PE believe they had a strong enough side they will always get the last match of the festival which usually draws a huge crowd on the Jubilee Field.
PE have toured Namibia and South Africa ahead of the festival. In Namibia, they won three out of four matches while in South Africa they triumphed in two out of the three games they played.
“We believe we are strong enough to compete in that last match but during a year when we are not that strong we don’t play the last match,’’ said Garikai.
Besides PE, some of the country’s best rugby playing schools participating in the festival are Peterhouse, Churchill, Saint George’s, Saint Johns, Lomagundi, Kyle College, Falcon College, Hillcrest, Milton, Plumtree and Eaglesvale.
Last year, Eaglesvale coached by now Zimbabwe Sables coach Cyprian Mandenge recorded some upset wins over Churchill and St Johns.
Last year, the festival was graced by World Rugby vice-president Oregan Hoskins, who is a South African.
Some of the high profile names who have played at the festival which was formerly known as the Cottco Schools Rugby Festival, include Tonderai Chavhanga (PE), Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira (Churchill and Peterhouse) Takudzwa Ngwenya (Vainona) and Tafadzwa Chitokwindo (Kyle College).
