Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
THE National Rugby League will end without a winner this year after efforts of going into the semi-finals hit a brick wall yesterday marking another sad chapter in local rugby.
It emerged only Old Georgians Sport Club were willing and ready to play in the knock-out stage where Bulawayo giants Busters indicated they were not able to travel while the Harare duo of defending champions Old Hararians and Harare Sports Club said they do not have the players for the games.

NRL president Noddy Kanyangarara yesterday told The Herald that this year’s edition of the league competition was the worst he has witnessed and administered, this is disappointing not only him but his committee and the rugby fraternity as a whole.

“It is very disappointing the league has come to an end in such a way. This is the most disappointing end to the league in the history of the NRL and I am not happy about the way it had to come to an end.

“We were hoping to at least give the top teams something to fight for despite the turbulent patch we had due to lack of funding but the clubs have indicated they can not play.

“Only Old Georgians were willing and ready to play, Busters indicated they are not able to travel to Harare while OH and Sports Club said they do not have the players for the game.

“Understandably so because of the unexpectedly very long break we had some players were no longer training because there were no competitive games to talk of for the last months.

“With the current rugby calendar it is impossible for us to slot any of the semi-final games at any weekend because of the upcoming Sevens Series, the Sevens Africa Cup and also the IRB leg of the World Series in South Africa,” said Kanyangarara.

Harare Sports Club were expected to take on Busters with the Old Boys facing the Dragons after only half of the league games were played, the rest being cancelled due to lack of funding and now the proposed knock out stage has also been cancelled.

However, Kanyangarara said they are now focussing on getting sponsorship for next season and have set a proposal budget of at least half a million United States Dollars for next year as they also aim at having a Cup competition.

Despite struggling for sponsorship this year, the NRL leadership feels that they have sent out their sponsorship proposals in time to potential sponsors as they are “serious about getting the US$600 000” for next season.

“We are looking at having more games and this means that we will add a Cup completion outside the league. For the league games we are looking at US$330 000 while we have budgeted US$300 000 for the league.

“At the moment rugby is being played for 20 weeks but with the coming in of a tournament, we will have up to 32 weeks of club rugby. But we hope we will engage the right people and that there will not be any (negative) interference in us looking for sponsorship,” said the former Sables manager.

Clubs are now focussed on the upcoming Sevens Summer Series starting with the Bulawayo leg in nine days time before two more legs that are set for Harare to conclude the local rugby season for this year.

 

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