Midlands Christian College host rugby coaching courses
THE Midlands Christian College (MCC) will today host the World Rugby (formerly International Rugby Board) Level 1 and Level 2 coaching courses targeting mainly secondary school teachers. The courses will be conducted by former Sables coach Godwin Murambiwa. The Level 1 course will be held today, while the Level 2 course is on tomorrow and Wednesday.

Coordinator of the course Percy Somerai said attendance is on a first-come-first-serve basis and they are targeting about 25 participants per course.

“The course is on Monday for the Level 1 course and each participant is required to pay $30, while Level 2 is on Tuesday and those attending are to pay $120. We’ve received good responses from schools from Midlands, but we’ve schools in Chegutu and Masvingo that are also sending participants,” said Somerai.

“Our main objective is to improve the quality of rugby being played in schools and to have as many qualified rugby coaches in schools as possible. We want to have a competitive rugby system in the provinces so that we’ve many representatives in our national teams,” he said.

The province has been on a freefall in as far as rugby is concerned with only MCC being the only recognisable rugby-playing school in the province. Meanwhile, former Sables player Jacob Mapfungautsi has urged newly-elected Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) president Nyararai Sibanda to revive the country’s rugby leagues, including junior structures, if the country is to become a force to reckon with.

“The standards of rugby have been going down in recent years and our junior structures are not up to scratch, hence our poor showing at the just-ended World Under-20 we hosted. I therefore call on the new president to put up sound structures from junior ranks up to the national league and then we can compete competitively,” he said.