Cottco rugby festival begins

this morning when the week-long event kicks-off at Jubilee ground.
The event that has grown to be the biggest on the schools’ sporting calendar and has seen the number of teams taking part increasing with each passing year.
The nature of the festival is such that there is no ultimate winner but rather it is meant to just expose the talent in the build-up to the schools league season.
Outstanding teams and individuals in both the Under-10 and Under-16 categories are rewarded with shields.
Over the past years the event has not managed to attract international interest and last year, the Zambian side that was expected to take part, pulled out at the last minute.
Tournament director, Sebastian Garikai, has indicated that three of the invited foreign teams have expressed interest in the rugby jamboree.
“Everything is in order and the foreign teams from Botswana and Zambia have confirmed their participation and at the moment we are just making the final inspections to the fields, among other things.
“We are expecting this year’s games to be more exciting and we have also incorporated some sports for the festival so that they see how we run the event.”
This year has seen Zimbabwe rugby getting a lot of recognition starting with the Zimbabwe Rugby Union who were awarded the right to host the Junior Africa Cup.
Zimbabwe are expected to host the African tournament that also serves as the qualifier for the Junior World Rugby Trophy.
Then came the tour by the British Barbarians Under-18 side who were here for a week. And now the Cottco Schools Festival takes centre stage with teams from Zambia and Botswana expected to take part.