Rugby fiesta in town

Ngoni Dapira
FANS will once again be kept on the edges when Harare top-flight league potential thriller pitting Mutare Shumbas and undefeated Harare Sports Club gets underway tomorrow at Mutare Sports Club.The match kicks off at 3pm.

The Mutare Shumbas showed their mettle against defending champions, Old Hararians last Saturday with an impressive comeback after trailing behind 28-0 deep into the second half.

After a humiliating first half that saw the visitors dominating and easily placing four tries, it seemed as though the Mutare Shumbas were in for a hiding.

However, the last 25 minutes of game time saw a spirited run from the hosts that no doubt gave the defending champions a run for their money.

The youthful Shumbas side came back into the match playing like their life depended on it and put in four tries and managing to contain the Old Boys to only put one try in the second half in the process.

The match ended 35-22, but the last minutes of play were truly epic and earned the Shumbas a standing ovation from their legion of fans who always come to support them.

The Old Boys maximised points by kicking through all their five try conversions, while the Shumbas only kicked through one out of four conversions and missed critical penalty conversions.

Nonetheless, despite being beaten by the Old Boys, the Shumbas showed they had a backbone and tomorrow’s match against Sportivo will be a good test of their stamina.

Sportivo, as HSC is fondly known, is currently flying high on top of the log after defeating Old Georgians 24-21 last Saturday. Although the topflight league now enters the fifth round tomorrow, this will be the Shumbas’ third league match of the season.

Their season opener away on April 11 against OH was a no-show due to outstanding issues on fixtures, which saw several clubs boycotting. In the second-round match against Southern City in Harare, the Mutare Shumbas won 40-15.

The third match against Police Defenders on May 2 was postponed because of the Dairibord schools rugby festival, then last Saturday’s home match against the Old Boys.

Currently, the Mutare Shumbas are sitting on position four on the log behind Sportivo, OGS and debutants Old Johanians respectively.

The defending champions who have had a bad start this year are currently on position five after losing their first two matches to arch-rivals Sportivo and OGS. Their win against the Mutare Shumbas last week Saturday became their first winning points on the board.

Debutants Old Johanians have on the other hand set off their campaign on a high note.

In their season opener they beat Police Defenders and last week Saturday literally walked over Southern City 101-0.

This means the Harare topflight league now has seven teams, OH, OGS, HSC, MSC, Police Defenders, Southern City and OJS. Harare league co-ordinator Donald Mangenje said they had roped in OJS, formerly known as Zimbank Sports Club (Rams), from the B-league after looking at their performance.

Mangenje said things were now picking up in the new-look league after a slow start.

This year’s league is the maiden under the custodian of the Zimbabwe Rugby Union after taking over the reins from the Noddy Kanyangarara led National Rugby League.

“Without a main sponsor, a slow start was inevitable and glitches were expected.

“We, however, agreed with all the clubs to keep club rugby alive and all teams are scrounging around for resources to fulfil their fixtures,” he said.

He added that as ZRU they were still looking around for sponsorship.

Mutare Sports Club chairman, Phillip Matiza, encouraged locals to come in their numbers and rally behind the home team.

“As a club we will have a disco to host the visitors after the match. Rugby is a crowd puller in the city, but nonetheless, I just want to urge people to come in their numbers and support their sole team in the top-flight rugby league.

“We will also have a braai and jumping castle for kids to make it an ideal place for a fun-day for families,” said Matiza. In other topflight league matches tomorrow in Harare, OGS will take on OJS, while OH take on Police Defenders.