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Fungai Muderere
THE Zimbabwe Sables, the nation’s under-15s squad, together with Kenya, Uganda and Zambia will take part in the revived Victoria Cup starting on Saturday to boost their international exposure at their premier Test rugby competition for the year 2019.
The Victoria Cup, a tournament which previously featured Kenya and Zimbabwe between 2002 and 2003 before it was scrapped in 2004, was revived following the cancellation of Africa Rugby Gold Cup as a result of the main sponsor Kwese Sports pulling out unexpectedly.
The Victoria Cup opener will see Kenya and Uganda clash in Kisumu on Saturday.
Kenya will then host Zimbabwe on 6 July with the return leg on 20 July in Harare. In their second and third matches of the cup contest Zimbabwe will entertain Zambia and Kenya on 13 and 20 July respectively. On 27 July, Zimbabwe will be away to Uganda and the return leg is set for 24 August. Zimbabwe’s last away match is against Zambia on 14 September. In a statement, Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) said they would announce the final squad for the Victoria Cup, the larger composition of this squad would be derived from the Zimbabwe Rugby Academy which had its debut season at the SuperSport Rugby Challenge. The Sables Trust has reportedly expressed its full confidence in sponsoring the national side picked for the Victoria Cup following the spirited performances from the Zimbabwe Rugby Academy. Zimbabwe Rugby Academy under head coach Brendon Dawson, in its first season in the competition, lost all seven of their games but managed to push a strong Western Province side close, losing a competitive match 33-13, while also coming within two points of beating the SWD Eagles. Dawson has been given the mandate to coach and assemble the Sables team to be announced including his technical team and the new Sables captain.
“Performances from the academy and the Sables are part of the ZRU’s long term goal of making it into the 2023 Rugby World Cup — a return to the Victoria Cup will mean that this will have the Zimbabwe taking part in 13 senior competitive matches in one calendar year,” read a statement from ZRU.
Meanwhile, following the cancellation of the Gold Cup, Rugby Africa has also unveiled a new competition format where the 16 best African teams will compete in a truly continental rugby championship made up of 20 matches divided into three stages. “We are completely revising our system of competition. By introducing this new format, we hope to forge new partnerships that will allow us to improve our game every year,” said Khaled Babbou, president of Rugby Africa.
Starting from November, 16 teams will compete in the new Rugby Africa Cup (RAC) with the aim to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in 2022.
The top 16 teams based on the African ranking will compete in a single co-ordinated competition until the last two face each other in the final.
The first stage consists of a qualifying round where the winner of each of these four matches will progress to the group phase. In this second stage, the 12 teams will be divided into four pools with teams playing against each other in a home and away game.
Online Reporter