Suburban
THE Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) in conjunction with a number of partners will be holding the Bulawayo Easter Rugby Festival which will see nine school teams battle for honours at Hartsfield Grounds, the home of rugby in Bulawayo.
Suburban Reporter
Eight local rugby playing schools and one foreign team from neighbouring Botswana will lock horns in the tournament in what will certainly be a forerunner to this year’s schools’ rugby season. The festival is pencilled to run between March 31 and April 1, 2023.
The local schools’ rugby season is normally held during the second term of school between May and August. However, pre-season usually starts during the holiday of the firm term in April and the Bulawayo Easter Rugby Festival will serve as a perfect pre-season fine tuning adventure for the schools involved in the competition ahead of the start of the season in May.
The competing schools are Milton Boys High School (the Elephants), Churchill Boys High School (the Bulldogs), Christian Brothers College (the Hornets), Lomagundi College (the Bisons), Plumtree High School (Amabhubesi), Wise Owl High School (the Wise Owls), Allan Wilson Boys High School (the Sables) and Petra High School (the Spartans).
The only foreign team taking part in the tournament are Botswana’s Under 19 Vultures who complete the line-up of the participating teams. Finer details of the Bulawayo Easter Rugby Festival were not immediately available but the ZRU confirmed in a post on their Facebook Page this week that the tournament will take place. The ZRU listed Crystal, Zarah Lounge, Havanna Cubana and Cosmopolitan as its partners in organising the festival.
The festival is a welcome development for schools’ rugby after one of the country’s biggest rugby showcases — the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival — stalled in recent years due to Covid-19 pandemic when most contact sports were suspended by Government as a measure to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Traditionally hosted by Prince Edward School in Harare, the festival was last year scheduled for the end of April but the organisers had to put it on ice once again because Government had not given the green-light for the festival because Covid-19 was still a concern then.
Should the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival resume this year, it will mean that the two major cities Bulawayo and Harare will host two schools rugby festivals, which will be springboards for junior rugby development. The two festivals will also widen the platforms where budding rugby players can showcase their talent and sharpen their skills.
Over the years, the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival has managed to attract international interest.
Last year a sponsor from Portugal was expected to join the tournament and widen the base of sponsors. More foreign teams from Germany, Portugal and Spain had also expressed interest to take part in last year’s edition which was however put on hold.
The Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival typically provided an opportunity for players to make it into national team squads that participated at regional events such as Craven Week and the Grant Khomo tournaments in South Africa.
The Dairibord Schools’ Rugby Festival, was first sponsored by Cottco from 1998 to 2013 before Dairibord took over from 2014 to present.
