The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWEAN rugby talent on display at the recently held AMG Global Junior Rugby Coaching Festival at Falcon College excited former Golden Lions coach Eugene Eloff.
The former Junior Springboks mentor was one of the five South African coaches who took the youngsters from various schools in the country through aspects of the game. Eloff was pleased with the energy shown by the youngsters over the three days of the festival. Delarey du Preez, Norman Jordaan, Eloff, Sean Everett and Marius Hurter together with Zimbabwe Sables assistant coach Brendan Dawson imparted rugby knowledge to budding rugby players during the festival.
“Working with these kids, they just want to play, they just want to have fun, they are like sponges, they just want to learn. These kids have been working for three days in the morning, in the afternoon, three hours, they don’t get tired. When we finish in the evenings, the coaches are finished and the kids keep on playing,’’ Eloff said.
What excited the veteran coach was that the aspiring rugby players showed a lot of enthusiasm which made it easy to work with them.
“They do it with smiles and laughter, that’s one of the important things in sport because when you play professionally its pressure, these guys are having fun and I guess the coaches have a big role to play to make sure that the kids understand the safety of the game and secondly to have fun. So you have to teach them how to tackle correctly but allow them to express themselves,’’ he said.
Eloff, who was in Zimbabwe for the first time since the country attained independence was amazed by what he saw in Bulawayo. He believes that Zimbabwe could be the torch bearer of a country changing and getting things right.
“When we arrived in Bulawayo, there was a real sense of calmness and happiness and the people seemed very content with each other. Zimbabwe might become the flagship of a country changing and getting it right, economically, politically. I am excited to see the progress not only in terms of the politicians but also on the sports field but the progress of the boys competing in the world and becoming world champions,’’ Eloff said.
He praised the organisers of the AMG Global Junior Rugby Coaching Festival for putting together such an event. Eloff said he was already looking forward to return to Zimbabwe next year for the fiesta.
“I take my hat off to the organisers, we are already excited to come back next year if it’s going to happen, we identified some areas where we can improve on but the facilities, the school and the surroundings its perfect, I guess that’s also why the national team came and trained here,’’ he said.
Orlando Fernandes, the director of the festival said he has received lots of encouraging feedback from the Investec coaches. What excited Fernandes was that the youngsters got to meet and interact with the senior national team players who were in camp at Falcon College.
“I have received much positive feedback from the Investec Academy coaches and from many of the participants of this Festival. It was also an awesome experience for the developing rugby players to meet and interact with the Zimbabwe Sables and I can but hope that this will further inspire them to make this their goal,’’ Fernandes said.
He expressed his gratefulness to AMG Global, the major sponsor for the third year running and to the many other co-sponsors, Zimbabwe Lithium, Ecobank, PPC Cement, Fawcett Security, Banff lodge and Tesa fencing.
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