BY SPORTSCAST WRITER
HARARE – Much has been said about the youthfulness of Zimbabwe’s Africa conquering rugby team. Men mountains in their mid-20s matching the sheer physicality of the Namibians and Algerians in the front and second rows. And then even younger lads displaying exceptional flair, fluidity and speed in the back three. While the players have become younger and younger, so too has the Sables coaching and technical bench, which is led by the 42-year-old head coach Piet Benade. Ricky Chirengende, the assistant coach of the team that lifted the Africa Cup in Uganda last week, is only 35, just two years older than the team’s oldest players. Apart from the three South African consultants, Sables team manager and former Zimbabwe national team player TJ Chifokoyo is at 43 the oldest member of the local contingent of the technical department that travelled to Uganda for the Africa Cup.
Piet Benade (head coach, 42)
The former Western Province flyhalf maestro, who earned a handful of caps for Zimbabwe, cut his coaching teeth in the Cape Town area, where he spent most of his playing career. Benade coached at Rondebosch and Wynberg Boys High Schools as well at the False Bay club in the Western Cape. Only appointed earlier this year, the former Zimbabwean schoolboy rugby sensation has already achieved two notable feats: guiding the Sables to their first victory over old rivals Namibia in 23 years as well as winning Zimbabwe’s first Africa Cup title since 2012.
Ricky Chirengende (assistant coach, 35)
While playing for the University of KwaZulu-Natal in the Varsity Shield, Chirengende suffered a career-ending injury. He went straight into coaching, his skills quickly coming to the fore. He became one of the first black and youngest first team coaches of Maritzburg College, a top rugby-playing school in KZN. The former Zimbabwe Under-21 vice-captain was then appointed Sharks Schools Sevens coach, before returning home. Schooled at Watershed College in Marondera, Chirengende is also the head coach of St George’s College. Interestingly, Chirengende requested to travel back to Zimbabwe before the Africa Cup final against Algeria so that he could take charge of the big schoolboy Harare derby against St John’s College. Chirengende recently completed his World Rugby level-three coaching course, the youngest holder of the certificate in Zimbabwe at the moment.
Tapfuma Parirenyatwa (team doctor, 37)
Cuban-trained medical doctor Tapfuma Parirenyatwa played rugby for Zimbabwe, featuring prominently for the Sables as an eighth-man under former Springboks coach Peter de Villiers in 2018. “Doc Pari” is also a recently-elected vice-president of the Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU). Son of a doctor and former Minister of Health David Parirenyatwa, the ex-Sables loose-forward runs a home-based medical practice in Harare.
TJ Chifokoyo (team manager, 43)
Chifokoyo was part of the last Zimbabwe team to win the Africa Cup, back in 2012. A towering loose-forward who became a mainstay in the Sables line-up in his short international career, Chifokoyo started as Zimbabwe’s performance analyst post-playing days before taking over as team manager. In the early 2000s Chifokoyo teamed up with current Sables head coach Benade in a star-studded Zimbabwe Schools team at the Craven Week in South Africa. Ex-Prince Edward Boys High School student Chifokoyo is the son of former football administrator Julius Chifokoyo.
Non-traveling backroom staff
Fortune Chipendu (line-out coach, 42)
One of the most capped players in the over-a-century history of Zimbabwe’s rugby team wasn’t in Uganda but helped to prepare the side during training camp in Harare. The former Sables lock, who hails from Mabvuku, is a role model in his home area and has inspired a great many youngsters from the Harare high-density suburb to take up rugby.
Tichafarwa Makwanya (Player-welfare manager, 36)
A stalwart for club and country in his long playing career, the former Old Hararians and Sables flyhalf will also have a thing or two say at the training ground, if called upon from his behind-the-scenes role. Passionate and vocal about the welfare of players in his playing days, Prince Edward-schooled “T-Mak” didn’t go to Uganda but is shoe-in for this newly-created Sables position.
Kevin Nqindi (assistant forwards coach, 36)
Nqindi was member of the Sables team that suffered the heartbreak of missing out on 2015 World Cup qualification by a whisker. The powerful ex-prop spent most of his domestic rugby career in South Africa before returning to Zimbabwe. He also wasn’t at the Africa Cup in Kampala.
