“DB”Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival time.

All is set for the 5th Edition of the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival slated for 30th April to 5 May at Prince Edward School.

The festival title sponsor acronym by the youth is DB and  since its inception in 2014, it has grown in stature to become a permanent feature on the local, regional and international rugby calendar. However, the acronym  DB  for  Dairibord is also used in the military as Detention Barack.

The DB  festival is a platform for rugby schools to showcase their talent as they polish up for the forthcoming school leagues in their rugby leagues unlike DB for the military were undisciplined soldiers are punished.

Speaking at the official launch in the Capital on Tuesday night, Dairibord Holdings Marketing Director Tracey Mutaviri acknowledged  the tournament as a worthy event to sponsor. “Dairibord has been making an annual investment to the tune of $182 k and cumulatively since we assumed the title sponsorship in 2014, the total investment now stands at $910 k (R4,6 million) worth of sponsorship”, she said.

“Our passion for promoting good health and healthy fun filled lifestyle not only manifests itself in the range of nutritious  foods and beverages that we manufacture but also in our passion to promote healthy life styles among our youths through high energy sports such as rugby”, she added.

This year’s theme is “Who is the next Beast”, as Dairibord Holdings realized that it’s not just products that have life cycles, but sports personalities as well.Tendai Mtawarira is nicknamed the Beast  who played rugby for Zimbabwe before changing to a South Africa citizenship  when he turned for Spring Books because  at  that time,  dual citizenship was  not allowed in Zimbabwe.

The Schools Rugby Festival has grown in stature, scope and inclusivity  which have seen non- traditional rugby playing schools up their level of play. There is also a tremendous growth in participation by high school girls and primary school children.

The biggest if its kind in the world, Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival has also increased in the participation of high schools in the remote areas of the country in order to give youths in the remote communities an equal opportunity to play and excel in the sport of rugby. Dairibord Marketing Director praised the Zimbabwe Rugby Union for living up to the saying “Rugby is a hooligan ‘s game played by gentlemen”.

The Festival Director , Mr Tawanda Jimu  at the official launch reiterated the need of quality at the schools rugby festival.150  schools have confirmed participation with visiting teams from Bangladesh , Botswana and Zambia national under 19.

The Festival Director applauded the success story portrayed by the girl child participation. Girls teams have increased participation from 5 girls  teams in 2014 to 38 teams  for this year ‘s edition highlighting a step change. Sulumani girls  from the remote area of Honde Valley will also be around again and the visiting Bangladesh girls to make the Festival fun filled.

Under 13’s, Under 16’s and Under 18’s boys and girls teams will rock the one- week long  Schools Rugby Festival spurred by rivalry.Primary schools will battle it out on  Sunday 29th April before High Schools square off from Monday 30th.

Peter House  Boys, Falcon College and  CBC will miss this year’s edition with Peter House going to Portugal for the preparations of their  schools rugby  league.Peter House sometime were quoted on face book saying they are not benefiting from the Festival. However they lost to both Prince Edward and Churchill in the 2017 Schools Rugby  Super League.