This year’s third edition of the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival will feature primary schools and will run concurrently with the World U20 Rugby under the theme “attracted to greatness” in a bid to promote community sport development and spread the game of rugby to the people.
16 primary teams will battle it out on the Rhodes field on Wednesday afternoon 27 April at Prince Edward in a rugby Festival that starts on the 24th of April to the 30.Festive director Tawanda Jimu during a media brief said that some of the primary school teams will be coming as far as Bindura and Guruve, the latter being a remote area.He also commended the improvement on the girl child.”Kuwadzana 1 High is bringing girls team for the first time”.
Dairibord Zimbabwe managing director, Tatenda Napate also pointed out that the turn out of teams was increasing every year which depicted the growing of rugby among communities.Teams and individuals will be awarded award in different categories which will also include match officials.
The schools rugby Festival has produced rugby greats with the likes of Tendai “Beast” Mutawarira (RSA), Tonderai Chivhanga (RSA), T.Ngwenya (USA) to mention but a few.Tonderai Chivhanga will grace the occasion as a role model to impact the youths to see how sport can be a profession.The hosts Prince Edward headmaster Mr Agrippa Sora was delighted to have the 2016 edition at his school.He revealed that rugby star Tendai Mutawarira once schooled at Prince Edward before transferring to Churchill high School.
The Festive also saves as an educational platform with a number of programmes lined up during the week and these will include; Observer Programme, Judo for rugby, Adolescence Issues,Mentorship programmes, Sports and event management, Coaching and Refereeing Clinics, Career guidance and anti- doping education awareness programme.The festival still remains the largest school boy and school girl rugby event of its kind in the world with over 3500 players representing over 100 schools from all corners of the country including foreign teams converging at Prince Edward for a seven day action packed week to play over 200 high intensity matches.
The format of the Festival is that all participating teams play three games each against opponents of matching strength over a period of seven days(for the first time), and all rugby- playing school boys and girls can easily be part of the spectacle.There are no outright winners and losers; it is simply schoolboy and school girl extravaganza where at the end of the day, everyone is a winner.
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