Harare Sports Club conquers all

team manager, Sportivo were duly rewarded for their efforts after winning the championship title.
Two weeks after lifting the league title the champions are still celebrating their success making it their first championship title in three seasons, having fallen in the past two finals to Old Georgians.
Surely, the Red Lions corrected their mistakes from the past two years where they had lost to Old Georgians where it mattered the most and on both occasions lost in similar fashion — with defeats in extra time.
They were the most organised side, well kitted, won all but one game the whole season and lifted the Metro Challenge Cup in the process before being crowned national champions.
They had the most vibrant junior policy that included the likes of winger Steve Hunduza, centre Shayne Makombe, fly-half Lenience Tambwera, fly-half Lenience Tambwera, Tolerance Zishe, flanker Sean Chigumbura.
Sportivo also have the prolific young Churchill Boys High student Simbarashe Kabatebate in their ranks.
But these young players could not have done it alone without the balance from the more senior and experienced players who included prop Kudakwashe Kambasha, captain Daniel Hondo, winger Tangai Nemadire, Jakov Jakov and Cleopas Makotose.
However, Sibanda feels that the fact that his side won all but one game the whole season made sure he was relived of pressure and their 22-19 win against Bulawayo side Matland Warriors was enough to give him happiness.
“I feel relieved and happy because the team was under a lot of pressure which was coming from literary everywhere.
“The players themselves did not want to miss out for the third year in a row, we had to please our supporters who wanted nothing short of the championship and we had to do it for our club sponsors because everyone wants to be associated with a winning brand.
“Some of the pressure on us was coming from the fact that we had set ourselves two targets for 2012, one ending unbeaten in all competitions, and winning the challenge cup.
“But we just failed on winning all our games with a defeat to Matland Warriors away in Bulawayo,” said Sibanda.
It was a long journey to championship for the Red Lions as they had their fair share of injuries and other players failing to play due to various reasons but Sibanda feels that this was a sign of depth.
Sports Club have proven that they are capable of producing world class players and over the past year, they have managed to export three players to the professional Scottish rugby league.
First was prop Denford Mutamangira who joined Ayr Rugby Football Club in January before he was joined by flanker and former Sports Club captain Shingi Mpofu also at Ayr while Gerald Sibanda completed the transfers with a move to Galashiels RFC last month.
And despite Sportivo losing the trio, they still managed to beat overpower anyone who stood between themselves and the title.
“Our captain Shingi signed for Scottish side Ayr and many people thought the wheels would fall of the wagon, well as you witnessed it was like no player had left, we just carried on the way we were from the beginning.
“The leaving helped us a lot because it has raised our profile, we have established links with the Sharks who have taken on some of our youngsters into their academy, we also managed to facilitate for other youngsters from other clubs to get into the Sharks academy.”
While some of the clubs in Zimbabwe are dominated by players from traditional rugby playing schools that feature at the annual Cottco schools rugby festival on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays Sibanda feels rural and high density schools have something to offer.
His junior development policy has seen Sports Club take on board players from the non traditional rugby playing schools and develop them to quality junior players who exhibit a lot of talent .
“As Harare Sports Club for years we had our coaches, players and ex-players coaching at various schools. At Cottco for example we tend to focus more on the teams that play on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (non traditional rugby playing schools).
“The reason I do this is because we believe the mark of a good coach is taking a player who is viewed by everyone as average and working with him to become one of the top players. For example we took on David Makamba who was at St. Johns Chikwaka, this year he played for the undefeated Zimbabwe Under-19 B side at the CAR Under-19 tournament and is part of our Under-23 side the Red Lions.”
While much of the credit goes to the players on the field of play, Sibanda believes that they could not have done it without the dedicated administration team led by chairman Donald “Brasco” Mangenje.
Mangenje and his team managed to get a kit sponsorship deal from renowned New Zealand sports wear manufactures Canterbury and Amalgamated Motor Corporation have become their biggest sponsor through their Suzuki brand.
“They administration was unbelievable, they ran around and did everything we requested for and much more; we would travel to Bulawayo even a day before our games, our side was well kitted and that was good enough to motivate the boys.
“All credit and glory goes to God, there were times when we played badly, but somehow we always managed to come out victorious, God had a plan for us,” said Sibanda.