Zimbabwean Rugby interviews David Coltart
12 October 2011
1. Do you think the instability of Zimbabwe as a nation has contributed to elite Zimbabwean-born rugby players turning out for other countries (E.G. David Pocock with Australia, Tendai Mtawarira for South Africa)? I think it is partly the instability but mainly because we have not professionalised the sport in Zimbabwe – of course that is directly linked to the economic collapse the country has suffered in the last 10 years.
2. One criticism of the Zimbabwean rugby system is that there’s no gateway for emerging players. In South Africa they have high-school, Craven Week, Vodacom Cup, Currie Cup, Sevens and Super Rugby before they reach Springbok level. Are there any moves to create a system similar to this in Zimbabwe? There are moves to resuscitate club rugby and to try to get Zimbabwe playing in one of the lower leagues in SA – with the idea being that we can then progress with the hope that one day we will play Currie Cup again.
3. All things considered, it’s a great achievement that the Zimbabwe Under-20 boys have qualified for the 2012 IRB Junior Rugby World Trophy. Did this surprise you – and if so why – or were you always quietly confident? I was not surprised because our schoolboy rugby is still very strong – I think the strongest in Africa outside of SA itself – the Cottco tournament held every may is one of the largest schoolboy tournaments in the world. Our problem is that we have not been able to retain this schoolboy talent which has gone on to benefit other Nations.
4. How do you anticipate the Under 20 boys will go at the 2012 IRB Junior Rugby World Trophy? Are you expecting them to compete for silverware? If you look at our performances this year against Canada, Russia, Georgia etc you will see that although we lost we were not far off their standard. I think we will become increasingly competitive – it may too early to expect silverware next year but it will come our way in the next few years.
5. In your opinion, what resources are needed to improve the state of Zimbabwean rugby as a whole? Is there a need for more professional coaches? Fundamentally we need the national economy to recover so that commercial sponsors will come back. Without that sponsorship we cannot retain players. Of course we also need professional coaches which is an areas of weakness at present. Jake White was in Zimbabwe recently and when I met him he was deeply concerned about the poor standard of coaching in Zimbabwe, certainly at schoolboy level. He comment was that we have immense talent which is not being exploited properly.
6. The Zimbabwe Sables senior rugby side is currently ranked #35 in the world. As we move towards the 2015 Rugby World Cup, do you think there’s a big possibility Zimbabwe could feature at this event? Zimbabwe should play regularly at the World Cup. I would argue that at schoolboy level we have much more depth than Namibia – if we can keep these youngsters and coach them more professionally we should easily be able to outperform Namibia in future and make the second African slot our own.
7. What are some issues currently halting the development of Rugby in Zimbabwe and what moves are being made to overcome these? Our major problem is finance which I have spoken about already. We need to get the correct government policies in place before the economy will fully recover – when that happens a lot of other things will fall into place.
8. Do you think people like Pocock and Mtawarira inspire younger Zimbabweans who play rugby to continue with the game? Would you say it proves they can make it and have a profound impact on the game professionally? There is no doubt that Pocock, Mtawarira and Ngwenya (who plays for the US) are inspirational – along with the many other who play club and provincial rugby in other nations to a very high standard. If we were able to choose a select side of all those who learnt the game in Zimbabwe we would be able to compete at Currie Cup level even now. That reminds youngsters that we do have that potential.
9. Do you keep a keen eye on Zimbabweans who are professional rugby players abroad? I do but at present it hard to attract them back because we simply cannot compete with the contracts they have at present.
10. In ten years time, where would you like to see Zimbabwean rugby to be overall in terms of progress? If we can settle the country politically it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Zimbabwe could be back playing Currie Cup and regularly qualifying for the World Cup in 10 years time. Our ultimate goal must be to try to field a side that could play Super Rugby. We will never of course be as strong as the top Rugby nations but there is no reason why we should not aspire to play at the same level as say Italy. We used to be far better than Romania and the depth of our schoolboy rugby should enable us to get back up there.