Mehluli Sibanda Senior Sports Reporter —
THE Zimbabwe Rugby Union has gone into mute mode following the disappointment by the national Sevens rugby team, the Cheetahs, who failed to qualify for International Rugby Board World Sevens Series core membership status at the Hong Kong Sevens last week. Zimbabwe saw their dream of becoming a full-time member of the IRB World Sevens Series brought to a painful end by Italy who beat the Cheetahs 17-12 in extra time at the quarter-final phase of the qualifier. Japan went on to gain promotion with a win over Italy last Sunday.
There was so much excitement and hope when the Cheetahs set off for Hong Kong for the qualifying tournament. Zimbabwe had probably the best chance of securing a place as a full-time member of the international sevens circuit considering that they had come out tops at last year’s qualifiers and teams like Russia, which usually give the Cheetahs a hard time were not at their best.
Had they attained core membership status, the Cheetahs were going to participate in all the nine tournaments, which are part of the IRB World Sevens Series as opposed to the current scenario where they only get invited to make up the numbers in tournaments in their own region.
Another incentive of being a core member is that the IRB gives the respective union a grant to allow the member countries to be competitive.
At the moment, Zimbabwe has its players scattered all over the world where they are playing 15s rugby making it difficult for the Cheetahs to hold their own against established countries.
After the team’s aspirations were ended in the last eight by Italy, the spotlight will now fall on the team’s preparations for Hong Kong. So many questions need answers but the ZRU has decided to ignore all these questions and have carried on as if life was normal.
Efforts to obtain a statement from those mandated with running the game of rugby on behalf of all Zimbabweans did not yield any desired results.
ZRU vice-president Colleen De Jong insisted on the media to stick to some senseless Press statement sent out by the union’s marketing consultant David Crouch despite specific questions being asked by this newspaper. The statement tries to paint a picture of everything being fine and life going on as normal after the Cheetahs let down the whole nation who followed their progress in Hong Kong on television.
Questions sent to ZRU technical director Liam Middleton who took charge of the team in Hong Kong were ignored. This was despite the fact that since the Cheetahs returned from the Asian country, Middleton has been extensively quoted in some sections of the local media.
Questions on who was responsible for the debacle in Hong Kong were not answered. The subject of who appointed Middleton as the Cheetahs coach in the process dislodging Gilbert Nyamutsamba, the man who was in charge when the Cheetahs won the Hong Kong qualifier last year, was also not addressed.
Middleton, a former coach of the Cheetahs who relinquished the position in 2011, which was then given to Nyamutsamba, was engaged as the ZRU technical director in October last year. Since he bounced back on the local rugby scene, Middleton seems to have caused much harm than good.
In November last year, when Zimbabwe took part in a tri-nations competition in Namibia, those who were in that country claimed that Middleton usurped Sables coach Brendon Dawson’s duties as the team coach. The allegations were never taken seriously by the ZRU which led to the resignation of Sables team manager Losson Mtongwiza at the end of February.
A few weeks later, Nyamutsamba chose to withdraw from the Cheetahs squad going for the South African leg of the IRB World Sevens Series in Port Elizabeth in protest against too much meddling by Middleton. This left Middleton in charge of the team and was assisted by former Cheetahs captain Daniel Hondo.
On the eve of the Zimbabwe Invitational Sevens in Harare last month, Middleton was quoted by our sister newspaper The Herald proclaiming himself as the Cheetahs coach. He further claimed that Nyamutsamba had been assigned another role. Nyamutsamba pulled out of the Cheetahs again paving the way for Middleton to further realise his dream of coaching at international level again when he took the team to Hong Kong with Hondo again as his assistant.
The ZRU is said not to be aware of the changes to the Cheetahs coaching structures as those recommendations were done by the Zimbabwe Sevens rugby committee and then ratified by the ZRU executive led by president John Falkenberg.
However, for some strange reasons the ZRU has not moved in to correct the situation with fears that Middleton might be deriving his powers from some members of the executive.
Meanwhile, Nyamutsamba has expressed sadness with the team’s failure to grab a fine opportunity. Despite not being in charge of the Cheetahs in Hong Kong, the Bulawayo based Nyamutsamba has decided not to play the blame game, instead has taken full responsibility for the team’s shortcomings in Hong Kong and apologised to the whole nation. He felt accountable since he spent a lot of time with the team fine tuning for the qualifiers in Hong Kong.
“My heart bleeds for the Cheetahs and the rugby loving nation of Zimbabwe. There was so much anticipation and preparation ahead of the tournament and we went there as favourites. For us to lose in the quarter-finals adds salt to the wound,’’ said Nyamutsamba.
The Cheetahs coach disclosed that he was still waiting on the ZRU to make public their position on who the coach of the national Sevens rugby team is.