admin
Kusile Madlela Sports Reporter
SIX secondary schools from Bulawayo’s western suburbs took part in day one of the Old Mutual Schools rugby festival at Hartsfield Grounds yesterday. Other schools came late for the tournament hence they could not be fixtured. Entumbane walloped St Columbus 15-0 in game number one and Msiteli and Sobukhazi tied at 0-0. St Columbus then beat neighbours Mzilikazi 5-0 before humiliating Msiteli 20-0 later in the day.
According to an official, Nelson Madida, the idea is to give western areas-based schools an opportunity to play rugby as they don’t see much of the action during the season.
“All the teams played two games and we’ve been monitoring the performance of the players. Thembelani Ncube, Mbongeni Ndlovu, Ntandoyenkosi Ndlovu and myself have been tasked with selecting players from each age group. The Under-14, Under-16 and Under-19 will all have a team that will play on Saturday (tomorrow) against eastern schools,” said Madida.
“Other schools did not show up, so we had to cancel the fixtures and work with those that were available. The tournament will see some of these youngsters being invited by clubs to come for trials and some will make automatic entry into the league teams which is good for the sport,” said Madida.
He thanked the main sponsors, Old Mutual for the initiative.
“Every year Old Mutual are committed to the development of the sport starting at grassroots level. This is a welcome initiative that other corporates should emulate for the development of rugby because we have a lot of talent at the elementary stage of the sport and it needs to be nurtured,” said Madida.
Results
Under 14: Entumbane 15-0 St Columbus, Sobukazi 0-0 Msitheli, St Columbus 5-0 Mzilikazi.
Under 16: Entumbane 0-7 St Columbus, Sobukazi 7-10 Msitheli, St Columbus 10-5 Mzilikazi.
Under19: St Bernards 21-10 Msitheli, St Columbus 20-0 Msitheli, St Bernards 0-7 Mzilikazi, Entumbane 10-7 St Columbus.
Online Reporter