The country’s most prestigious schools rugby festival, known to many as Cottco, will now be sponsored by Dairiboard Zimbabwe as the main sponsor, starting this year. According to the organisers, Cotton Company of Zimbabwe will remain on board as a subsidiary sponsor.
This year’s festival will be held on May 5-10 and will be co-hosted by Prince Edward and Allan Wilson. A total of 150 schools from in and outside Zimbabwe are expected to take part.
“This year I am sure we can take on the big boys like Prince Edward at the Dairiboard rugby festival,” said Hillcrest sports director, Chrispen Mhike.
He said players like Tinashe Gonese, Tinashe Mugwari, Talent Sagombeto, Innocent Farirayi and Simba Ruwanikwa made quite an impression during the South Africa tour. He was confident the players would rise to the occasion in this year’s competition.
“I am very proud of the boys. We have a very strong team that I feel will make it and this shows that this year we have a very strong team,” he said.
The team, known as The Leopards, had three matches against South Africa’s St Martin’s, Albarton and Redhill High School and made a statement in the tournament opener, where they hammered St Martin’s 38-12.
In their second match against a tricky Albarton side that had always proved to be their tricky customers, the Leopards wrote their own history when they fought to secure a narrow 10-5 victory.
To put the icing on a perfect tour, in the final against Redhill they secured a 17-7 win. Mhike said the tour was generally a success as they managed to show their sporting prowess against South Africa’s elite schools.
He said this was the first time for their rugby team to win all the matches since 2012 when they started taking part at the invitational tournament.
Post published in: Rugby