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Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Rugby Union have said they will work with the recently-appointed national coaches in developing them on and off the field.

They believe the coaches will be World Rugby Level III accredited coaches by the end of 2017.

ZRU director of rugby Brighton Chivandire yesterday told The Herald they were going to make sure that the coaches hold better qualifications by the end of 2017 for the betterment of the game.

Former Sables assistant coach Cyprian “Supa” Mandenge was early this week appointed Sables coach, taking over from Brandon Dawson. Brendon Brider took over as the Young Sables coach, Daniel Hondo was put in charge of the Cheetahs while the duo of George Mukorera and Abigail Kawonza are in charge of the women’s teams.

With all these coaches holding World Rugby Level II coaching certificates, Chivandire feels that it is up to the ZRU to make sure that they equip these coaches with the necessary weapons if Zimbabwe is to remain competitive.

“Our aim is that by 2017 all coaches should be Level III holders. . . not students but they should be certificate holders. We need to develop the coaching staff we have, they need to go for high performance workshops.

“If they do not attain the Level III coaching certificate then we are saying they should, at least, have attained a number of certificates and attended a number of coach upgrade courses and high performance workshops.

“My duty as the director of rugby is not to fire but to make sure that they perform and the best way to help perform is by capacity building of these technical teams, both the coaches and their support staff, as I have a duty to make sure we achieve the set goals.

“We are also trying to avoid a situation where we have a high turnover, instead we should have people who appreciate how the ZRU operates, people who appreciate the system ,” said Chivandire.

Three years ago Mandenge was one of the coaches who travelled to South Africa where he was on a 10-day attachment with the Sharks in KwaZulu Natal while the then Sables coach Dawson was in Stellenbosch. Following the appointment of coaches, the ZRU are next week expected to name the respective supporting staff .