The Sunday News
FORMER Zimbabwe Sables prop forward Tapiwa Mangezi has called time on his rugby playing career because of persistent injuries.
Mangezi, capped six times by the Sables between 2012 and 2013 said a knee injury as well as a pulled hamstring forced him to retire from playing rugby. His last competitive rugby fixture was a National Rugby League encounter for his club Matabeleland Busters when they played against Old Georgians at Hartsfield Rugby Ground in Bulawayo last year.
The decision by the 34-year-old Bulawayo businessman comes a few months after he stepped down as the Matabeleland Rugby Football Board chairman. He made his international rugby debut at the age of 31 during a triangular against Namibia and Spain at the end of 2012.
Mangezi was sidelined for eight months after he suffered torn ligaments to his knee in what was his final match in Sables colours during an Africa Cup division 1A fixture against Madagascar in Antananarivo, in July 2013. When he returned to full fitness, the tighthead prop was forced to pull out of the Sables camp in preparation for the 2014 Rugby World Cup qualifiers in Madagascar due to a pulled hamstring.
“I have retired from playing rugby because of recurring injuries. I have also lost the motivation to train. I was sidelined by a knee injury for eight months, after that I had to pull out of the Sables camp for the World Cup qualifiers because of a pulled hamstring, I was disappointed by that because I believe I could have played a part in taking the team to the World Cup,’’ said Mangezi.
He quit as MRFB chairman in December last year, a post he had held since 2011. That has seen vice-chairman Sean Robinson assuming leadership of the Matabeleland rugby board.
Mangezi is, however, not lost to rugby as he remains involved as a board member at Busters and a sponsor of the MidMat Rugby League through his family-run Keats Enterprises.
In March, Mangezi was part of former Zimbabwe players who took on their South African counterparts in a match played at the Victoria Falls Primary School in the resort town.
