adminNgoni Dapira Sports Correspondent
MANICALAND rugby enthusiasts have urged the new technical director of rugby, Brighton Chivandire, to clean up the Zimbabwe Rugby Union house to save the future of the sport in the country.
Chivandire is expected to begin his term of office as the country’s technical director of rugby tomorrow (Saturday).
The Zimbabwe Rugby Union appointed Chivandire to replace Liam Middleton, who resigned in September to take up the job of head coach of Canada’s Sevens men’s rugby team.
Chivandire’s appointment comes after a lot of rumours did rounds about big names that were in the bid for the post, among them former Springboks coach Peter de Villiers and former Sharks Academy director Hans Scriba.
However, it was Chivandire, who has 22 years’ experience with Zimbabwe rugby that got the post.
Sakubva born-former Sables player and one of Zimbabwe’s most capped players with 75 caps by the time he retired in 2012, Prayer Chitenderu said Zimbabwe’s rugby was slowly dying and Chivandire must be a ‘hard-talker’ if he is to be effective.
Chitenderu said there were a lot of issues killing Zimbabwe’s rugby, chief among them ‘boardroom’ rugby, where administrators were benefitting at the expense of players with little or no development of the sport on the ground.
“I have nothing against Chivandire but I feel if he is to get respect from me and other rugby enthusiasts out there, he has to be a hard-talker and clean up the ZRU house.
“We know that the technical director of rugby post is a prerequisite from the International Rugby Board, but then again we also know that it comes with a heavy perk for him and a grant to ZRU.
“We have always demanded for transparency from ZRU, and this should be the first port of call for Chivandire.
“Let’s have a stakeholders’ meeting and bare it all to chart one way forward as rugby enthusiasts.
“A lot of people in the diaspora and even locally want to support the sport but do not like how the ZRU administration has been running the show for the past years — like a briefcase organisation,” said Chitenderu.
Chitenderu said a lot of key senior players were hanging their boots due to administrative squabbles, which was unnecessary when the focus should be on developing rugby to qualify for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Chitenderu, however, said Chivandire as a former veteran Sables player should be in a better position to understand the players’ needs, which is what was needed for the development of Zimbabwean rugby.
Manicaland ZRU secretary Mackenzie Munetsi said Chivandire has been in the trenches and would know the practical approaches to map a way forward for Zimbabwe’s rugby.
“I do not want to take away anything from Middleton because he had a good vision, but Chivandire has the same skills as Middleton, an International Rugby Board Level 3 coaching certificate, whilst at the same time he has been in the trenches, so he will be more hands-on.
“Zimbabwe needs a hands-on technical director who has walked the playing field because some of the ideas that were put up before were perfect theoretically but practically off beam,” said Munetsi.
Munetsi said Chivandire should, however, seriously focus on having structures in place at the grassroots to counter the talent exodus from former group A rugby powerhouse schools after high school.
“We cry about talent exodus, but the truth is Zimbabwe has enough talent regardless of the exodus of some of its shining stars from former Group A schools.
“We need to have strong structures in place at the grassroots to tap all the talent from as far as little-known Checheche,” said Munetsi.
Manicaland ZRU chairman Richard Chiwandire said coming out of a near miss to qualify for the 2015 RWC, a new technical director was without doubt needed to shake things up.
He, however, urged Chivandire not to be a ‘bootlicker’ but to be assertive.
“I think Chivandire will do justice on the job. He has the experience and expertise, which means he should be able to come up with some sharp and insightful turnaround strategies to have win-win results for the 2019 RWC qualifiers.
“He, however, has to be assertive and address the problems on the ground. There is a lot of confusion out there which is killing the spirit of the sport countrywide. We need to sit down and come up with a clear-cut national strategy. We proved to the nation that we can make it to the RWC when we missed out narrowly.
“Chivandire can be Zimbabwe’s rugby’s messiah if he decides not to be a bootlicker and be a hard-talker for the development of the sport,” said Chiwandire.
Chiwandire added that there was need to have the integration of the ZRU and the National Rugby League to strengthen local club rugby structures and have correlation, unlike the current state of affairs.
Chivandire is best known for his impeccable record as head coach of the Zimbabwe Under-19-20.
According to ZRU, Chivandire will be fully accountable to the ZRU executive to put in place structures of the game nationally.
He will be tasked with overseeing coach education, up-skilling programmes for the entire country, National Community Development Programmes and to set out a clear strategy for the development of Zimbabwe Rugby’s high-performance programme, amongst many other responsibilities.
Furthermore, the director for rugby will be appointed to the Executive of the Union, while he automatically takes over as the convener of selectors for National XV’s, VII’s men’s and women’s teams.
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