Rugby season gets underway

weekend of March. Hong Kong, Georgia, Kenya, Zambia and Botswana are the five national teams that have confirmed participation for the two-day international tournament set to run between March 9 and 10 while South African Sevens Academy, Mpumalanga Pumas, the Bulls and Buffaloes come in from South Africa.
And the hosts will be represented by the Sevens’ senior side, the Cheetahs, and their developmental side, the Goshawks, to make it a 12-team tournament.
Some of the Cheetahs’ players have already signed contracts and are training in a 20-member squad in preparation for their four huge tournaments in the form of the Hong Kong, Edinburgh and London legs of the Sevens World Series and the World Cup.
The Zimbabwe Rugby Union wants to leave no stone unturned as they search for any other potential talent that could make it for the expanded squad already training for these tournaments. And the search will begin tomorrow in the local series that is being used to select squads that will represent the nation at the Spar Zimbabwe international tournament with teams coming from all corners of the country. Previously, the tournament only involved teams from Harare with Mutare coming in as the only teams from outside but, according to Cheetahs committee chairman Donald “Brasco” Mangenje, the new format is meant to facilitate for an open selection of the Cheetahs and Goshawks sides.
This year there is not going to be a winner in the series because of the fact that we are going to use it in Cheetahs and Goshawks selection for the Spar International but we will have 18 teams taking part in the first stages.
“We have divided the first stage into two regions namely North and South and this means that teams from Harare and Mutare will feature in the Northern Region while the Southern Region involves teams from Bulawayo, Midlands and Masvingo.
“From each of the regions we are going to pick two teams and this gives us a total of four teams where we are going to randomly put the players into any of the teams for the Probables against Possibles game and mix the players on March 2,” said the former Sables and Cheetahs scrum half.
The whole process will take a month with the first leg set for Old Hararians Sports Club this weekend where the Northern Region teams will clash while Southern Region teams will meet at Gweru Sports Club next weekend. The last two tournaments will be played at Harare Sports Club on the 23rd of this month with the final leg also at the same venue a week later.
Teams
Northern Region: Mutare, Harare Sports Club, Old Hararians, Old Georgians, Police, Airforce, Southern City, Mbare, Mufakose, Mabvuku, Harare Sports Club II, Old Georgians II.
Southern Region: Panthers, Warriors, Old Miltonians, Gweru Sports Club, Shabanie, Masvingo.
Fixtures
Tomorrow: Old Hararians (Northern Clubs) February 16: Gweru Sports Club (Southern Clubs) February 23: Harare Sports Club (North v South) March 2: Harare Sports Club (North v South)