Delta cherishes rugby partnership

Maxen Karombo
Delta Beverages, through brand Lion, have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the Zimbabwe National Rugby League, through our sponsorship of rugby in the country for the past three years. This sponsorship was born with the desire of developing rugby in the country to international standard looking at the recent past where the sport was now in the periphery.

Indeed, we have achieved this through exposure of our local players who have managed to play both the regional and international stars from this initiative in the past three years.

Lion Lager is not new in sponsoring rugby in the country having done so for over 15 years.
The Lion National Rugby League has made a mark on the rugby history of the country having churned out key players into the national team. Due to the competitiveness of the league, 28 out of 34 players that played for the national team in the 2011 season came from the National Rugby League.

As a result Zimbabwe went up on the IRB rankings. We have exported 24 players to other unions in Africa and Europe. There has also been an increase of teams from the Southern Region coming into the National League from three in 2011 to Five in 2013.

We have also seen through this sponsorship the revival of teams Gweru Sports Club and Zvishavane Bulls that last played top-flight rugby in 2001. Busters Rugby Club, now Matabeleland warriors, have also been revived.

The rugby player base has increased from less than 320 players in 2011 to more than 650 players in 2013. The league has seen more than 34 coaches being trained to attain IRB Level 1 coaching courses. Visibility and appreciation of the game has, indeed, increased.

There are more teams playing rugby in Zimbabwe now than there were at the inception of the NRL.
Centres that have never played senior rugby are now playing rugby and these include Masvingo, MSU, NUST, Thornhill Airbase in Gweru and Quest from Esigodini. Uniformed forces teams like Airforce, Police and ZNA were revived.

Because of the interest of wanting to play in the NRL, the number of Rugby playing provinces has increased from two in 2011 to five in 2013. Infrastructure that had been run down has now been refurbished and hosting rugby matches. We have seen also the revival of centres like Mbare, Mabvuku and Chitungwiza.

We are proud to be associated with this event (Lion Lager National Rugby Awards) that is an important sport investment in our country. We do hope and believe this event shall be able to award and pay tribute to the rugby players who have worked very hard over the year to attain the requisite skill and discipline required to play the sport.