Coltart pleas on Sables’ behalf

Daily News

By Enock Muchinjo

20 July 2012

Sports minister David Coltart says he will assist the Zimbabwe rugby team in its fundraising drive to fulfil this year’s edition of the annual Victoria Cup with Uganda and Kenya.

The Sables, who were crowned new African champions after narrowly beating Uganda 22-18 in the Confederation of African Rugby (Car) Group 1A final in Tunisia last weekend, are battling to defend their Victoria Cup title due to lack of funds, leaving their participation in the tournament hanging in the balance.

Coltart, who heaped praise on the new African champions at a function upon arrival from Tunisia on Tuesday, has come out in full support of team.

“I have already been in touch with the Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) and I said I’m prepared to negotiate with prospective sponsors to get the team to play,” Coltart told the Daily News yesterday.

“That’s the measure that has been taken. I will be having meetings as soon as possible with commercial companies and ZRU.”

“The proposal is not solely on the Victoria Cup, I have asked them ZRU to present a roadmap for (2015) World Cup qualification. The Victoria Cup is the immediate priority, but you can only get substantial funding if the plan is beyond the Victoria Cup.

“From a sponsors’ perspective, the World Cup gets a lot of coverage. Sponsors would want to see a viable strategy to get to the World Cup. If we just go to sponsors with the narrow framework of the Victoria Cup, I’m not sure if we will have takers.”

The Victoria Cup, however, gives Zimbabwe an opportunity to consistently play at test level ahead of the last round of World Cup qualifiers in 2014, a point noted by Coltart.

Before the Victoria Cup was launched in 2010, the Sables struggled to string together a decent amount of international games in a year, which left players terribly out of depth at that level of competition in the few games they played.

“We can’t just look at it in isolation,” Coltart said.

“It’s part of the process in our World Cup qualification strategy.”

Coltart also urged Zimbabwean rugby authorities to strength ties with South African provincial unions in order to secure regular competitive matches for the team as a way of professionalising the game in the country.

“The Victoria Cup and even the Africa Cup cost a lot of money,” he said.

“We have South Africa right at the border and we must utilise that. We have to get more game time for the team. We have to professionalise and ensure that players spend more time playing rugby, better diet and more time in the gym. I’m told the reason why Uganda were bigger than us is that they spend more time in the gym.”

Coltart re-emphasised the need to bring back more of Zimbabwe’s exiled rugby players back into the national fold.

“We have to bring back some more internationally-based players,” he said.

“Clearly, there are other Zimbabweans playing top level rugby elsewhere. It will give us a bigger pool to select from. We have a lot of top-class players outside the country playing at a decent level, not international rugby, but club and provincial rugby. We have to build a decent pool ahead of the World Cup qualifiers.” Zimbabwe’s success in the last two years has also been attributed to some extent, to the integration of former youth internationals into the senior national side in recent times.

“We also have to try and retain players,” Coltart said.

“What Brendan Dawson has done is to bring youngsters into the team. If you see our performances at the Under 20 level, you will see that it is world-class. At senior level, sides like Russia and Japan are ranked in the Top 20 in the world.

“We are ranked 29, but at Under 20 level we beat Russia (at the recent IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy) and really should have beaten Japan (in the first game of the tournament). That’s an indication that we have to try to maintain youngsters.

“The reason we can’t retain these youngsters is that they can’t play here as amateurs. It’s dangerous to play rugby at international level as an amateur if you don’t have proper diet and do not spend time in the gym. It underpins the need to make rugby more professional.”

In line with ZRU’s efforts to popularise the game, Coltart also advised the union to invest in a spacious venue for future international games.

“We have to get rugby back to a national stadium,” Coltart said.

“In the past, rugby was played at the Police Grounds. I’d like to see a ground like Police Grounds re-established. I’m told by the president of the Zimbabwe Rugby Union (John Falkenberg) that if we play at a bigger ground funding from IRB will increase. Hartsfield in Bulawayo also need refurbishment to bring it back to international standards.”