The BancABC women rugby 7s tournament which had been set for Harare Sports Club starting on Saturday has been moved to early next month due to the upcoming tour by the New Zealand cricket team who will be using the same venue for their matches against their local counterparts.
Organisers of the tournament also said they moved the dates to accommodate teams from the region who will be competing in other international tournament the same weekend.
The tournament which is set to attract teams from South Africa, Namibia, Uganda, Nigeria, Zambia and Ghana among others, will now start on 12 November at the same venue.
Zimbabwe Women’s rugby chairperson Aisha Tsimba said: “The Confederation of African Rugby Union, the governing body for rugby unions within Africa, are hosting a rugby world cup 7’s African qualifiers tournament end of this month. Most teams are therefore prioritising this tournament in terms of funding as well as preservation of players and have expressed concern in the nearness of the BancABC tournament to these qualifiers.
In an effort to ensure that we have maximum participation and attendance, we therefore felt it prudent to accommodate some requests to move our tournament, given how crucial these games would be.”
Leading the teams who have requested for the postponement of the tournament to a later date, is South Africa who have clubs who will be competing in their local Middelburg tournament on the same weekend the BancABC was scheduled to kick off.
Zimbabwe are the defending champions after defeating Zambia in last year’s edition of the competition.
The national women rugby union said they are committed to holding the annual tournament which they say is crucial for women rugby growth in the country, recognition and participation.
