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Leonard Ncube, [email protected]
A TEAM of 70 pupils who play Rugby, and their families from Dubai Sharks Rugby Club of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who recently visited Zimbabwe on a nine-day countrywide tour, had a successful trip that laid the ground for future school trips from the Arab country.
The trip was aimed at not only developing the sport but for opening gates for school trips from the Arab nation.
The team arrived in the country on 22 March and they departed on Sunday after touring Harare, Marondera, Esigodini, Hwange and Victoria Falls where they played friendly matches with locals and also interacted with various stakeholders including sampling local tourism products and activities.
Dubai Sharks is a not-for-profit family club with over 850 members from the ages of three years to 55 years, playing rugby and netball across all divisions in the UAE.
The tour was facilitated by the Zimbabwe Embassy in UAE and consisted of 70 participants comprising players aged between 10 and 15 years, coaches, medical team and supporting family members.
Dubbed the “Sharks in Southern Waters”, the tour was meant to give the team an appreciation of the environmental, cultural and historical endowments as well as create a huge destination awareness in UAE and the Gulf Region.
It was also meant to mark the grand reunion with roots for Dubai Sharks head coach Gregory Andrews who attended school at Falcon College in Esigodini some years back.
Andrews was the delegation leader.
This was the first time the Dubai Sharks Under14 Rugby Team comprising 34 boys and 37 parents and siblings accompanying them embarked on the rugby tour across Zimbabwe and their coming is expected to inspire more schools to visit Zimbabwe on trips.
Dubai Sharks players are drawn from different schools and nationalities across the globe.
While in Zimbabwe, they were hosted by the schools that they played against.
Andrews said they arrived in Harare and headed to Marondera where they played against Peterhouse and Watershed Schools.
“It was a very successful day in school as the team won against both schools. Our B side narrowly lost by 1 point to Peterhouse B. This was followed by fixtures in Esigodini against Falcon College and CBC where a clean sweep was celebrated by the visitors,” he said.
The victory over Falcon College was special as Andrews attended the school many years ago.
They visited Carlisle Primary School for an interaction with some less fortunate kids and sampled nature activities at Quiet Waters Conservation.
From Esigodini the team proceeded to Hwange where they stayed at Safari Lodge where they did game drives.
Their final two nights were in Victoria Falls where they visited the Rainforest, did a gorge swing, Boma Dinner and Drum Show, sunset cruise and had an engagement with the Zimbabwe Tug Rugby Trust where they spent the afternoon playing tag rugby with kids from Chinotimba Primary School.
“What an incredible adventure for our boys and a very memorable experience it was. With great support from our tour members we were able to raise some much-needed cash to support a number of their ongoing projects including the provision of a new 5 000 litre water tank for the Rose of Charity Children’s Home,” he said.
He said the travelling team had members from 21 nationalities from all over the world.
Online Reporter