Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Paul Munyuki
14 November 2009
Harare — IS Zimbabwean rugby about to turn the corner? The Cheetahs are doing well on the international scene, those who are in charge of the Sables are working hard and crucially, the production line is alive and well.
The men at the helm of junior rugby, coaches Brighton Chivandire and Godwin "Jaws" Murambiwa, are doing a great job and -- with that -- comes hope.
Murambiwa was in charge of the Under-18 side that took part at the annual Craven Week festival in South Africa early this year and lost only one of their three matches.
They lost to South Africa A and beat Border Districts and drew against Namibia in their last game.
The Under-19, under the guidance of Chivandire, won all their games to lift the Africa Junior Championship title in Kenya which helped them qualify for the Junior World Championships in Fiji next year.
Murambiwa was the assistant coach in Kenya. He believes the local teams could be stronger and better if the selection criteria was changed.
The Under-18 side is under the Zimbabwe Rugby Union but the control rests with Falcon headmaster and former Under-18 coach Reg Querl who sits on the ZRU board.
The Under-19, however, have a different selection panel and process and fall directly under the ZRU. The selection for the Under-18 side starts at provincial level where the selectors pick their best players.
From there the teams get to play in the inter-provincials at a central venue where the squad is picked before going into camp and finally being trimmed down to 23.
Murambiwa believes that should change.
"I strongly feel that provincialism has died in the country and I believe that is no longer the best way of selecting players for the national junior sides," said Murambiwa.
"Yes it was good, back in the days where even the players themselves felt proud of playing for their provinces, but there have been a lot of changes as time has moved on and it has all slowly lost value.
"These days we have a Borrowdale resident going to school in Marondera, Bulawayo or Mashonaland West and I feel that that has made the passion of playing for the provinces go down.
"Back in the day you would find that most of the students would learn close to their homes, mostly as day scholars in their towns, and that made them proud to play for their province.
"The (provincial) trials are not fair to some kids, for example we take Peterhouse in Mashonaland East, who happen to be the strongest team in the province, and because of that, the whole team could be picked to represent the province. "This would mean an average player, whose skill is probably lower than that of a player at Marondera, could be selected for the provincial side because his weakness are overshadowed by the brilliance of the rest of the team.
"In this year's Craven Weeks side, there was only one player from the Matabeleland Region and one from the Midlands while the rest were predominantly from Harare province."
So how do we change that?
"I have written a proposal to the schools rugby board with my views on how we should try and change from provincialism to a system that I as a coach, would help in getting the best players," said Murambiwa.
"I feel that selection should start at Cottco where we have most of the rugby playing schools in the country performing and, from those schools that would have appeared at the festival, we pick a certain number of players.
"If we say we are picking eight props, then the same would apply to all the positions we need in a team. We then put the players in eight teams without looking at where they come from, removing the school tags and make teams of players mixed from different schools and provinces.
"Some would cry foul because they do not play at Cottco, but at least we would have covered most of the better talent and this also helps in raising the profile of Cottco as well."
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