The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
THE search is on for the next stars in the Zimbabwe national sevens women’s team rugby with trials to be conducted in three cities this month.
Mutare was the first port of call where the scouts were at Mutare Sports Club yesterday and today. Hartsfield is the venue for the trials in Bulawayo on Saturday and Sunday before the scouting ends at Harare Sports Club in the capital city over a three-day period at the end of this month to the start of December.
In a statement, Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) called upon all women in the country to attend the talent search, whose target age is from 17 years going up.
“We are inviting women from all around Zimbabwe to come and participate in nationwide trials to identify Zimbabwe’s next stars. We are inviting athletes from all sporting disciplines who would like to give it a go at 7s,”’ read part of the statement.
ZRU are looking to turn the Lady Cheetahs into a dominant team in Africa and compete at the highest level in the world and believe that this can be achieved by scouting for talent across the country.
“The process will continue in the long run as we go around the country, our aim is to improve on our rankings in Africa, push for world series participation and take part in as many tournaments as we can. The important thing is to enlarge our selection pool, but creating squad depth,” concluded the call for women to attend the trials.
At last month’s Africa Sevens Women held in Tunisia, the Derek Chiwara-coached Lady Cheetahs found the going tough where they finished eighth out of 12 teams at the competition that also served as a 2020 Olympic qualifier. Their only win was a 12-7 group stage triumph over Zambia while they were beaten by South Africa, Uganda (twice), Morocco and Kenya.
