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THE Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival comes to life today amid fears that the annual event will be overshadowed by the ongoing Junior World Rugby Trophy tournament.
Festival organisers recently saw their bid to ride on the JWRT go up in smoke.
The Zimbabwe Rugby Union ruled out the possibility of teams taking part in the world showcase making special guest appearances and conducting coaching clinics at the schools’ fiesta.
ZRU general manager Sifiso Made explained why visiting international teams would not be making stopovers at Prince Edward and Allan Wilson, the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival venues.
“Indeed, we did receive the request from the organisers of the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival and we have made our position very clear to them,” he said.
“While the day to day running of the Junior World Rugby Trophy is under our auspices as the hosting union, most decisions concerning the welfare and upkeep of the visiting teams are made by World Rugby. There is protocol to be observed and procedures to be followed; our hands are tied on such matters.
“When we received the request from the festival organisers, we forwarded it to the relevant authorities and we are yet to hear back from them. This means that at this point in time, we are unable to allow these teams to visit the festival.
“The teams have hectic schedules divided between game days and training sessions and I doubt they will be able to find time to squeeze in a visit or two to the festival.”
Made described the proposal as noble but noted that there was nothing ZRU could do about it without the blessings of World Rugby.
“We would have loved for such interaction to occur and will continue trying to make the visit possible,” he said.
The third edition of the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival comes to life with over 196 teams, including primary school outfits, expected to participate.
The festival will run under the theme “Attracted to Greatness” and will see most of the usual side programmes returning.
Among these are refereeing courses, anti-doping awareness programmes, coaching, judo for rugby and career guidance.
Online Reporter