daniel chigunwe
THE triumphant Sables returned home on Tuesday night from their successful adventure in Uganda where they accomplished all their goals by securing a ticket to the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
They returned to a heroes’ welcome at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.
There were scores of delirious Zimbabweans who braved the chilly weather conditions to welcome their heroes.
The Sables ended a lengthy 34-year-wait for us to return to the Rugby World Cup showcase by beating Namibia in the final.
They won all their games in the tournament and showed that their success, in the same tournament last year, wasn’t a fluke.
The Sables also beat Namibia en-route to winning the tournament last year.
At no point, in this year’s tournament, were they ever in danger of losing even though they trailed Kenya at the halfway stage in the semi-finals.
However, their storming comeback in the second half showed that this class of Sables really meant business and nothing was going to stop their quest for a place at the World Cup finals.
Sables captain, Hilton Mudariki, was not even born when the team took part in their last World Cup in 1991.
Now, he is the proud leader of this generation of fine rugby players, a true rainbow representation of our country, who have been fighting in the trenches with both pride and patriotism.
We are very proud of our Sables and this generation of players has managed to bring life back into the sport and we can assure them that their next match at home will attract a capacity crowd.
We are a country who love their winners and the Sables have been writing some beautiful stories in the past two years.
They deserve all our support.
We have always derived a lot of pride as a nation that produces some brilliant rugby stars and Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira is one such star.
He won the World Cup with the Springboks. Now, we are returning to the World Cup to remind the globe that rugby remains alive in the country which produced the likes of Ian Robertson, Salty du Rand, Ray Mordt, Bobby Skinstad, Gary Teichmann, Tonderai Chavhanga, David Pocock, Takudzwa Ngwenya, Don Armand and Brian Mujati.
However, we feel that our Sables did not receive the kind of heroes’ welcome which their heroics in Uganda deserved.
We understand that the timing of their arrival, when many people are stuck in traffic and when temperatures have really fallen, made it very difficult for thousands of people to go and receive them on their return.
However, something else should be done.
We want to see the Sables parading their trophy on an open bus on the streets of Harare and Bulawayo.
We want them to share their glory with the ordinary man and woman on the streets of our biggest cities.
We want them to feel special because they deserve it.
It’s up to the rugby authorities, the Sports Commission and the Sables sponsors to pull this off.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter