Online Reporter
RUGBY Africa president Herbert Mensah’s announcement that Zimbabwe will face South Africa A in June are premature, Planet Rugby has learnt.
Mensah announced that the Sables would be facing off against a SA A team as a curtain-raiser to the Springboks’ clash against the Barbarians on Saturday, June 20 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha.
It’s the second year in a row that the Springboks will be facing the Baa-Baas in a match outside of the official international window, and just the second time in history that the Barbarians have played a match in South Africa.
“I have wonderful announcements to make. The fact that before the South African Barbarians match in June, the Sables will be playing a South African A team in South Africa. It has never happened before,” he said in an interview with RugbyWireZw.
“The fact that we’ve been able to negotiate for Zimbabwe’s home matches to be in England has never happened before. Yes, maybe it should have been in Africa, but there’s a revenue base that might make sense for us playing with a huge Zimbabwean population in Europe at the same time. “And I’m really hoping that this becomes the rebirth, the beginning.”
However, sources close to the Zimbabwean Rugby union have told Planet Rugby that the fixture has not been officially confirmed, and is not a foregone conclusion, as there is a reluctance from the board and coaches.
This is due to the fact that the match would take place outside of the official international window, meaning that the Sables team would need to comprise entirely of locally-based players.
Even if they were able to convince clubs to grant players an early release, outside of World Rugby’s regulation nine constraints, it could be a costly exercise with the union having to pay players to be in camp for a longer period of time ahead of the Nations Championship fixtures. A cost that is more than likely to outweigh the financial benefit of facing a South Africa A team.
A source states that there may well be a bigger appetite for a fixture against a South Africa A team at a later date, perhaps around August or September, when there is access to more of the players, but that a match in June offers little benefit to either nation.
The Sables qualified for the 2027 Rugby World Cup by defeating Namibia in the final of the 2025 Rugby Africa Cup and are now set to make their first tournament appearance since 1991.
Ending a 36-year absence in the tournament has ramped up the intrigue and support for the team and sport in Zimbabwe, and whilst there is an appetite to add more fixtures to better prepare the team for the global event, there is a notion of doing so with the bigger picture in mind. – planetrugby.com
