BY ENOCK MUCHINJO
HARARE – At 26, Brian Mujati was being rewarded with a two-year contract extension by Northampton Saints in 2011 after forming part of the best front-row in English rugby.
13 years after Mujati’s departure, the reigning Premiership Rugby champions have been charmed by yet another prop from Zimbabwe.
So, at 26, Cleopas Kundiona Jr will join Saints from French second-tier side USON Nevers at the end of the current season, looking to replicate the good stuff that made Mujati a firm favourite of the Franklin’s Gardens faithful in his over a century appearances for the club between 2009 and 2013.
Both are powerful tight-head props, solidly-built specimen capable of causing all sorts of problems for the opposition.
Their different career eras aside, the similarities between the two fellow countrymen pretty much end there, as they will find out in Northampton in the summer.
Mujati’s well-known forthright and outspoken personality is the total opposite of Kundiona, whose mellow nature is however nothing quite like the absolute beast he is on the park.
Kundiona is also very unlikely to follow in the footsteps of Mujati to nurture a beer-brewing hobby, or something of that sort. Kundiona’s faith is his favourite pastime, and he spends an enormous amount of his personal time with it.
The other difference is of course that Mujati represented the neighbouring global rugby power South Africa, while Kundiona is a Zimbabwe international.
Kundiona has taken a leap of faith to be where he is now, quite literally so to a great extent. As a boarder at Falcon College in Matabeleland, where hundreds of boys push themselves hard for a lean and athletic physique, a slightly heavier Kundiona was viewed as somewhat of a misfit on the school’s lush green sports fields.
Few people can narrate the astonishing transformation better than Brendan Dawson, who coached Kundiona at Falcon and all the way to Zimbabwe’s national team.
“That’s some amazing news,” Dawson told SportsCast on Monday. “Cloppy sent me a message three days ago, to tell me about this signing up with Northampton Saints. What a remarkable achievement for the young man, from where he started, being the overweight kid that he was and him giving a glimpse of playing first XV rugby at Falcon if he just dedicated himself and put his mind to it. From being that really, really big overweight kid to be able to 10 months later play Falcon first XV and then making Zim Schools that year, and the following year playing Zim Schools again, it has been a phenomenal effort from the young man.”
Former national team captain Dawson – a member of the last Zimbabwe squad to play in the World Cup back in 1992 – has had two stints as the African country’s head coach. From schoolboy to Test rugby, master and protégé reunited during Dawson’s second tenure as Sables gaffer.
Kundiona constantly speaks of his deep sense of appreciation for such figures as Dawson, but the former Sables skipper reckons Zimbabwe’s newest Premiership star deserves even more praise for his own turnaround.
“Credit must go to him, just his dedication, his determination,” remarked Dawson. “From Falcon days he then went to great heights, he represented Zimbabwe, playing under me, he’s just grown and grown. He got a contract down in France. And he has just grown again, from there, to go to the Premiership from a second division side in France, to Northampton, what an outstanding achievement. Credit must go to him, because once the young man puts his mind to something, he goes and find it, he goes and fetch it, he goes and work twice as hard, his commitment to what he wants to achieve is just outstanding. I’m very, very proud of him and ja, credits must go to him, he’s just so determined and he’s got a good spirit behind him. He believes in God, and he’s a good loyal man, he’s an honest man, and he’s honest in everything he does. So ja, I’m really, really proud of him. I’m really, really chuffed for him. The heights are just there for him to grow, grow and grow. Well done to him.”
