BY SPORTSCAST WRITER
HARARE – As beverages flowed freely late into the night to celebrate yet another piece of silverware for Old Hararians, club legend Tichafara Makwanya had time for bittersweet reflection amidst the partying, concerned about falling standards.
Zimbabwean rugby giants Old Hararians beat great rivals Harare Sports Club 29-20 on Saturday in the final of the Harare Province Rugby League, the country’s premier rugby competition.
36-year-old Makwanya, one of the coaches at the club, turned back the clock after he was picked to play at his favourite fly-half position.
Delighted as he was with the title, Makwanya wasn’t impressed with the quality of rugby across the league, as well as the officiating.
“To be honest, the rugby hasn’t been great in the recent weeks and throughout the season,” Makwanya told SportsCast on Saturday evening.
“There are a lot of things that we need to do as a rugby community. Things like set-pieces. You see, the Sables (Zimbabwe national team) put in a lot of work on set-pieces – line-outs, scrums – to be able to win that Africa Cup. So it’s basically a foundation of how we want to be identified as a nation. A lot of these things need to start locally, in the local league. If we are not taking that seriously locally, then we are going to struggle. We must have coaches sitting down and identifying areas that we need to work on, helping guys to nail those things and make it a mainstay across the board. We also need to sort out refereeing. No one is great, really, from the players to the referees. It’s all a bit of a mess. I think we also need to see former players going into refereeing, having interest in that side of the game. To make it better and get our game back to a level we used to be, or a level we need to be.”
The former Sables playmaker played for OH on a few occasions during the just-ended season, but wasn’t initially in the picture for the final on Saturday.
“I’ve been coaching the boys and also training here and there, but I know it doesn’t show when you look at me,” Makwanya, who appears to carry a few extra pounds, chuckled.
“We had a bit of an injury crisis. Our two fly-half options went down, (Tinashe) Hombiro and (Tino) Savanhu were injured. We were going to put Pride Nyameni there but he also got injured. We were in a Catch-22 situation. We were running around to make things work, so I had no choice but to play. I have enjoyed it, and the guys say I’ve done well. In the few games I’ve played, I thought I could be able to add some value.”
Makwanya was paired at half-back on Saturday with Sables’ 32-year-old captain Hilton Mudariki – with other seasoned players like forwards David Makamba, Brian Nyaude and Tonderai Chiwambutsa also in the mix for OH. Then the younger players like centre Dion Khumalo, 16 years Makwanya’s junior.
“All the guys are much younger than me,” said Makwanya.
“We have few guys that are playing Under-20 this year, and some who played Under-20 last year. We also have a few guys straight from school. Then you have guys like Hilton, who I played with in the national team before. Then the other senior guys like the Dwadwas (Tonderai Chiwambutsa), the Makambas. It’s all about helping them on their way. They obviously have a different way of doing things. So you sort of just try shape them, and also benefiting from them. We have a lot of guys that were with the Sables in Uganda in July, winning the Africa Cup. So you cannot disregard the experience that comes with having a Hilton there, a (Aiden) Burnett there. Even some of the new guys. As much as I try to teach them stuff, I’m also learning from them, bouncing ideas off each other.”
All the same, Makwanya – a battle-hardened warrior of this famous cross-town rivalry over the years – was chuffed with Saturday’s victory over the old nemesis.
“Sports Club had beaten us three times before this, so we needed to get one over them and there is no better occasion than in the league final,” he said.
“And also just to see the guys play well, dominate. I think our forwards dominated – especially our scrum, our line-out, our mauling. They were on point. It gave us backs the platform to get front-foot ball, and push on. Once your forwards are dominating, it becomes easier.”
