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Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
A MORE explosive day of rugby is expected today at Prince Edward when the big boys of schools rugby clash on day two of the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival. Traditional giants — Peterhouse, Falcon, Churchill, Prince Edward, St George’s College and St John’s College — will all be in action.And so will be the three foreign teams.
Having narrowly lost to Falcon College last year, Eaglesvale School are looking forward to their battle against the Esigodini based-school on day two of the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival today.
Eaglesvale lost 5-12 to Falcon College at the schools festival last year.
But there is more to the game than Eaglesvale trying to turn the tables as this marks a clash of two of Zimbabwe’s top ranked coaches.
Eaglesvale are coached by Sables assistant coach Cyprian “Supa” Mandenge while Falcon College are blessed to have the technical expertise of Zimbabwe Rugby Union director of rugby Liam Middleton.
Middleton joined Falcon early this year while Mandenge has been at Vale for quite a number of years now.
However, Mandenge is not reading much into this as he is focused on his side winning all their games at this year’s week-long festival.
“We are taking very game here at the festival very seriously, we have come here to play, we are looking forward to our opening game.
“Our aim is to win all our games, we narrowly lost to the same side (Falcon) last year and having been on tour prior to the festival, I believe, helped us in our preparations.
“We just have to hit the ground running, we have been improving with each passing game especially during our tour to South Africa.
“So, obviously, we would live to do better than any of our past performances,” said Mandenge.
But a number of things have changes since last year,
Falcon, like Eaglesvale,have lost a number of their players and there have been changes to their technical teams.
“I am happy that we have eight players from the side that lost to Falcon last year and I think this is a good number to retain and the rest of the side came up from last year’s juniors,” said Mandenge.
But it is not all local at the festival as three foreign teams will be taking part.
Botswana comes in with two teams, their Under-19 national side that has taken part in the jamboree before, and Lebokeng College, who are playing here for the first time.
One of Namibia’s top rugby playing schools, Windhoek Technicon, will also be playing today.
Botswana Under-19s are set to play powerhouse Peterhouse College just before lunch, Windhoek have a date against Plumtree at 9am while
Leboken take on Churchill School at 11.30am.
Fixtures Today
Jubilee Field 1st XV: Gifford v Watershed (8am), Windhoek v Plumtree (9.10am), Allan Wilson v St Johns College (10.20am), Lebokeng College (Botswana) v Churchill (11.30am), Peterhouse v U19 Botswana (12.40pm), Prince Edward v Lomagundi (1.50 pm), Falcon v Eaglesvale (3pm), St George’s v Kyle College (4.10pm).
Avenues Field 1st XV: Vainona v Goromonzi, Marondera v Milton, Mazowe v SEC, Murehwa v Jameson, Heritage v St Johns Emerald Hill, Hillcrest v Hellenic, Kutama v St Ignatius.
Chapel Field Under-16s: Victoria High v BMC (9am), Chinhoyi 1st v St John Chikwaka (10am) Prince Edward v Hillcrest (11am), MCC v St John’s College (12pm), Mbare Academy v St Georges College (1pm), Churchill v Kyle College (2pm), Plumtree v Peterhouse (3pm).
Yesterday’s Results
First XV: Oriel 19, Lord Malvern 7; Marist Nyanga 7, Herentals 5; Cranborne 25, Malbrough 0; Vainona Girls 72, George Stark Girls 0; Chipindura 5, Mabvuku 31; Girls High School 22, Roosevelt Girls 0; PE II 50, Western Surbubs 0; Mt Pleasent 5, Ellis Robins 27
Under-16: Sobukazi 19, St Columbus 0; Tafara 2 15, Dzivaresekwa 0; Mandedza 5, Presbyterian 5; Prince Edward 5, Harare High 5.
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