Former South Africa’s rugby star Percy Montgomery says Zimbabwe must engage vastly experienced coaches for schools to develop from grassroots level in the country.
Montgomery, who won the 2007 World Cup with the Springboks and retired from the game with more than 100 caps for his national team, was part of eight legends who toured the country for the one-day coaching clinic for over 100 children in Mutare on Friday.
In an interview with NewsDay Sport on the sidelines of the coaching clinic, Montgomery said Zimbabwe has the potential of producing many rugby stars.
“The most important thing if you want to develop rugby in this country is to start with the youngsters from the grassroots level and they need good coaches,” he said.
“Perhaps if there is need to engage overseas coaches with vast experience in the game, this will help a lot l think it is a better option. lf you also want good results, the most important thing is to keep the players together for a long-time, but it is difficult to do so.’’
“South Africa is very good in taping talent from the grassroots. Youngsters will be coming from different schools competition is stiff, so there is a large pool of players to select from and l believe this is one of the most important ways to develop the sport.”
One of the sponsors, Spar Marketing director John Economou said they were committing themselves to the programme and they were ready to turn it into an annual event.
“It was good to host the legends, and we are ready to sponsor this event into an annual event since this will also help us to develop the game from the grassroots,” he said.
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Schalk Burger (Sr), the father to the current Springboks star Schalk Burger (Jr), AJ Venter and Pieter Muller were part of the legends.
