The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Rugby Union will not get any funding from World Rugby for as long as they do not appoint a chief executive officer as well as a technical director.
World Rugby regional training manager for Africa, Denver Wannies said it was clear that Zimbabwe lacks in strength and conditioning, as witnessed by one of the top sides in the country, Harare Sports Club losing to Zambian side Red Arrows 16-13 last Saturday. Another plan for Zimbabwe, according to Wannies, is to help the country’s medical staff comply with World Rugby level two.
“It is clear what we got from them that in the S and C (strength and conditioning) that they are lacking, even from this game you could see the way they were overpowered by the stronger Zambians, so S and C is a crucial area identified by them and we will be clearly looking at helping them there, we will also be helping them comply with World Rugby medical standards, get them some immediate care in World Rugby level two medics qualified for them to be able to do duty on a World stage,’’ said Wannies.
He said they were drafting a plan and report which they will share with ZRU to agree on a way forward with regards to training and education activities. Wannies, who was in the country together with Johnbosco Muamba who is the World Rugby regional development officer said the focus is starting with coaches, referees, strength and conditioning mentors as well as medics because the belief is that if there are better coaches there will be better players. Wannies said for as long as ZRU continue taking time to make crucial appointments in their key secretariat, grants from World Rugby will take longer to get to assist the country’s game.
“I know the structure in Zimbabwe have been going through challenging times with a new board, with no CEO in place with no officially appointed technical director, somebody acting and those are some of the things that we are looking to deal with in our quest to get the union functioning at their full potential. There are grants from World Rugby and Rugby Africa, for those grants to cascade down to the level of the field ASAP so the longer it takes them to get those positions filled the longer it will take for the grants to get to where it should be and the longer it will take the game to where it should be so it really should not be taking any longer,’’ said Wannies.
ZRU president Nyararai Sibanda said World Rugby are supposed to make those appointments, they have handed over their shortlist of candidates for them to make the final selection. According to Sibanda, their hands are tied as World Rugby gave them clear instructions on that matter.
“World Rugby appoints and at this stage we have furnished them with our shortlist of candidates and we wait for respective choice. We are unable to do so as they gave us express instructions,’’ said Sibanda.
ZRU were left without a CEO and director of rugby when Colleen de Jong and Brighton Chivandire quit their positions last year. Nsikelelo Sibanda has been acting director of rugby ever since Chivandire quit while Nyararai Sibanda is said to be the interim CEO. The posts were advertised in January with applications received from in and outside the country.
Wannies believes that having a strong Zimbabwe helps as a lot of funds will come the country’s way from World Rugby. He pointed out that Namibia, while they have few rugby players than Zimbabwe get more funds because they qualify for the World Cup.
“If we have strong teams, at the moment in World Rugby the grants and resource support is going towards the stronger, bigger units, that’s why you see that Namibia has got far less players than Zimbabwe but Namibia is getting better support because of the fact that they are qualifying to play in World Cups. It is important for us to have quite a number of strong units that will ensure that the resource distribution in this part of the world will improve,’’ said Wannies.
The two officials were in the country for four days.
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