The Sunday News
Patrick Mushunje, Sports Reporter
UNDERLINED as the underdogs, without a coach, under the mentorship of team doctor, without a training ground at home, training at a tennis court but going all the way to beat varsity rugby kings University of Zimbabwe in the final of the Zimbabwe Tertiary Institute Students Union, (Zitusu) Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) have a great story to tell.
The Zitusu rugby games were held at Hartsfield rugby grounds early this month.
For the past five years, varsity rugby has been dominated by UZ and the Midlands State University. CUT had made their intentions clear early this year when they reached the final of the Zimbabwe University Sports Association games before losing to UZ 17-12.
Tanaka Kaura, the CUT captain said their victory was special taking into consideration the fact that they had no coach.
“Our journey towards the Zitusu games was a tough one, we didn’t have a coach, a training field and even the lecture schedule could not accommodate us as we were forced to train early in the morning on Wednesdays so we had to push for training on Saturdays and Sundays, we hadn’t prepared fully for the tournament,” he said.
He went on to say that what made their victory extra special was their poor record against UZ.
“What makes this victory extra special is that we have a poor record against UZ, we had lost all the previous five games against them and they were well prepared for the tournament, we needed something special to beat them and the boys managed to handle the pressure and we won,” Kaura said
CUT player Tafadzwa Zhangazha who plays prop, said he was greatly impressed by the performance of his team considering the way they had prepared for the tournament.
“I am greatly impressed by the team work that we have as CUT rugby team displayed, the team played very well in the tournament from game one to the final, back home we don’t have any rugby ground so we had to use the tennis court as our training ground but with the help of the Almighty we managed to win gold,” he said.
Team veterans and former CUT students came in large numbers to cheer their team to victory and the experience from the captain was very vital to the team’s success as he had to play the player coach role.
The triumph of CUT serves as a life lesson to most teams in Zimbabwe who think that they cannot make it in rugby because of the shortage of resources and Kaura commented on the issue as he said
“Most players think that for them to win titles they must have all the resources of which that’s not the case, it’s all about playing the game with your whole heart, you should let your passion for the game be the main driving force and once you let that happen, all things will start working your way,” he said.
