The Sunday News
RECENTLY appointed Zimbabwe national 15s team manager Brighton Chivandire says he is up for the challenge of managing the country’s flagship national rugby team.
Chivandire was confirmed by the Zimbabwe Rugby Union as the new Sables team manager from the beginning of this month on a three-month contract that will see him looking after the Sables players’ welfare up to the end of July.
That period covers the crucial 2015 International Rugby Board Rugby World Cup Africa qualifiers in Madagascar at the end of the month to the beginning of July.
The 45-year-old Chivandire takes over a job left vacant by the resignation of Losson Mtongwiza who quit the post early this year following the leaking to the media of his letter to ZRU president John Falkenberg where Mtongwiza alleged that systematic racism was prevailing at the national rugby mother body with white people being appointed to influential positions at the union.
Chivandire has over the years made a mark as a coach on the local front with the national junior teams and has described his appointment as a new task.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival at Prince Edward High School in Harare on Thursday, Chivandire said his job was to make sure the players were well taken care of in terms of welfare. “This is a different new challenge altogether, an exciting one and I am ready for it. My job is to make sure the players are well taken care of from a welfare point of view. My contract is performance based, there are issues that contribute to the success of a team,’’ said Chivandire.
A former Sables coach who was in charge of the national team in 2004, Chivandire was also Under-19 and Under-20 coach from 2006 up to 2012. He guided the national Under-20 team to the IRB Junior World Trophy in 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012. In 2012, the former Matabeleland Busters, Old Hararians and Zimbabwe Sables second rower assumed the role of Under-20 head of technical. Chivandire is also a coach at Saint Georges College where he is in charge of the Under-14 side.
Unlike in the past where the Sables team manager’s job involved organising matches for the team, Chivandire will only look after the players welfare as the task of finding fixtures for the Sables is now the mandate of ZRU technical director Liam Middleton.
To land the Sables team manager’s post, Chivandire saw off the challenge of ZRU general manager Sifiso Made, Prince Edward High School sports director Sebastian Garikai who were also interested in the job and made it to the final list of three candidates who were interviewed by the ZRU appointments committee.
