adminNgoni Dapira Sports Correspondent
ZIMBABWE Rugby Union’s plans to host a Sevens rugby invitational tournament early March in preparation for the Hong Kong Sevens series may hit a brick wall due to financial constraints, Post Sport has learnt.Zimbabwe rugby sevens franchise chairman, Donald Mangenje, on Wednesday confirmed that they were still raising funds for the invitational tournament, but were far from reaching the intended target.
“I cannot confirm right now whether we are still going to hold the international sevens invitational tournament because we are still raising the funds.
“We are actually appealing to the corporate world to assist in cash or kind as we press forward the last attempts to organise the tournament,” said Mangenje.
He said the March invitational tournament would be slightly smaller than the two-day Confederation of Africa Rugby hosted by Zimbabwe last year that drew 12-countries.
Mangenje said approximately $80 000 was needed to cater for all-expenses.
The Hong Kong Sevens series scheduled for March 22 to 24 serves as the entry point for core status qualification into the International Rugby Board Sevens World Series.
“Our priority is the Hong Kong series end of March where our performance will determine our qualification for core-status.
“We are slowly getting there as Zim (Zimbabwe) rugby. So we need to give the Cheetahs more experience before the Hong Kong Sevens, which is why we had planned for this invitational tournament,” said Mangenje.
The 2014-15 Sevens World Series season will also serve as the qualifiers for the 2016 Olympic Games to be held in Rio, Brazil.
In December last year, the Cheetahs had a disappointing run at the IRB Port Elizabeth, South African Sevens World Series tournament where they lost all their matches.
With that outlook in mind, Mangenje said another tournament before the Hong Kong Sevens would be ideal to measure their strength and weaknesses.
Online Reporter