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Fungai Muderere
HORDES of Zimbabwean young rugby players who took part in this year’s three-day AMG Global Junior Rugby Coaching Festival at Falcon College charmed former Springbooks hooker Delarey Du Preez who reckoned that he saw a lot of improvement in the youngsters.
A total of 16 institutions took part in this year’s festival, these being 10 primary and six high schools.
Du Preez, ex-Springboks prop Marius Hurter, Currie Cup stalwart Jacques Botes and renowned schoolboy rugby coach Greg Miller were the experts who came down from South Africa for the festival in Esigodini.
They were assisted by two locals, Brendan Dawson and Schalk Ferreira.
“We have seen a lot of improvement from the youngsters. They have shown a lot of hunger and we have also identified players who did exceptionally well as compared to last year. However, there is a need to help the players work on their scrum techniques,” said Du Preez.
The man behind the AMG Global Junior Rugby Coaching Festival Orlando Fernandes also described this year’s fiesta as a tremendous experience for the youngsters as well as their coaches since they got to gain knowledge about the game.
Fernandes, who started this initiative in 2016, felt that this year the players and their coaches drawn from schools all over the country got to benefit from the expertise provided by the four South Africans and the two Zimbabweans.
“I think the festival has been an awesome experience. I think the boys have learnt a lot and I think it was quite evident to see the improvement in certain aspects of the game as the festival progressed.
The coaches also benefited immensely from this, learning new drills, interacting with the Academy of Rugby coaches,’’ Fernandes said.
He added: “The effort that the schools made to make sure that they participated I think bears testimony to the reputation of this festival or how it has grown over the years. I also think that we try to do different drills which kept the coaches that have been loyal supporters of this festival interested instead of repeating the same type of drills. We changed a lot so that they would learn something new,’’ he said.
AMG Global were the principal sponsors of the event. Zimbabwe Lithium and Fawcett Security were the other bankrollers of the fiesta.
Recently appointed Zimbabwe Under-14 coach Maxwell Madziva attended the AMG Global Junior Rugby Coaching Festival where he got an opportunity to have a look at some of the players as he prepares to take the Old Mutual Junior Sables to the Under-13 Craven Week in Mpumalanga at the end of June.
AMG Global Junior Rugby Coaching Festival final day results: Petra 22-27 Admiral Tait, Whitestone 25-5 Goldridge, Falcon College 22-12 Lomagundi, Northlea 0-12 Gateway, Highlands 27-0 Kyle Prep, Wise Owl/Welton 22-41 Heritage, Western Suburbs 14-36 Hillcrest.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo