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has eight teams and, after graduating from high school, most of the players either drop the sport or leave the country for college education where they end up playing in those leagues.
But, for the greater number of players who remain at home, dropping the sport would be their other option as the number of teams is not big enough to accommodate those just coming out of schools.
Murambiwa feels there is need to fill the void between the senior teams and the players that are just coming from school by creating the Under-20 league.
“Problems start when these players leave school. I believe Zimbabwe hasn’t got enough clubs running at the moment so the big clubs can only accommodate so many players into their 1st XV so the players (from schools) lose interest and move on,” said Murambiwa.
“Maybe, we need to revive an Under-20 league, even if they are to play Wednesday night games, but the youngsters will still be playing.
“On the down side we don’t have a national vision for schoolboy rugby and it doesn’t mirror anything at Sables level unlike in SA where the structures are related.
“This maybe another issue that needs looking at.”
Last year Murambiwa left his post as the assistant coach of the Under-20 team and said he had no intention of sitting on any of the senior national rugby side’s technical benches.
He opted to concentrate his efforts in the Under-18s.
Since leaving the Sables in 2003, the coach has largely been involved in the game at junior level, especially in schools, where he took charge of the Under-18 Craven Week side for the past six years.
He has also coached the Prince Edward Tigers, leaving his post at the end of last season, before joining the St George’s College Dragons at the beginning of this season while also continuing with his role as the Under-18 coach.
In 2007, Murambiwa became the first coach since Zimbabwe gained Independence to guide the Under-18 rugby side to victory in all their three games at the Craven Week festival, a feat he feels this year’s side can repeat.
Having been experienced life as a coach at both the junior and senior levels, Murambiwa feels that while schools rugby was strong, there was a bottleneck when it comes to graduating to the senior level.
“Schools have done a lot by developing, nurturing and pushing talent forward, academies need money and manpower and this takes higher powers than all of us to establish, all these ideas need money and a very strong will to do it.”
At the moment, rugby power and dominance has largely shifted to Harare with more than 80 percent of the players, in all national teams from Under-14 to the Sables and the women’s, based in the capital.
“Matabeleland need to rediscover themselves and change something. Rugby needs structure and those structures in some schools in Harare are starting at primary school and engaging external coaches in age group teams helps.
“Rugby in Zimbabwe can be better, in five years, than now if all provinces strive to improve because this is the only way we will have a strong national schoolboy side,” said the former Sables coach.
Online Reporter