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Cyprian Mandenge

Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
Having narrowly lost to Falcon College last year, Eaglesvale School is looking forward to their battle against the Esigodini based-school on day two of the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival tomorrow.

Eaglesvale lost 5-12 to Falcon College at the schools festival last year and they seek to do justice to themselves when they meet the traditional rugby giants again.

But there is more to the game than Eaglesvale trying to turn the tables as this marks a clash of two of Zimbabwe’s top ranked coaches.

Eaglesvale are coached by Sables assistant coach Cyprian “Supa” Mandenge while Falcon College are blessed to have the technical expertise of Zimbabwe Rugby Union director of rugby Liam Middleton.

Middleton joined Falcon ear;y this year while Mandenge has been at Vale for quite a number of years now.

However, Mandenge is not reading much into this as he is focused on his side winning all their games at this year’s week-long festival.

“We are taking a very game here at the festival very seriously, we have come here to play we are looking forward to our opening game.

“Our aim is to win all our games, we narrowly lost to the same side (Falcon) last year and us having been on tour prior to the festival, I believe, helped us in our preparations.

“We just have to hit the ground running, we have been improving with each passing game especially during our tour to South Africa.

“So obviously we would live to do better than any of our past performances,” said Mandenge.

But a number of things have changes since last year, Falcon like Eaglesvale, have lost a number of their players, they have had changes to the technical team and this is definitely going to have an impact on both teams play.

“I am happy that we have eight players from the side that lost to Falcon last year and i think this is a good number to retain and the rest of the side came up from last year’s juniors juniors,” said Mandenge.

But it is not all local at the festival as three foreign teams will be taking part.

Botswana comes in with two teams namely their Under-19 national side who have taken part in the jamboree before and Lebokeng College who are playing for the first time.

One of Namibia’s top rugby playing schools Windhoek Technicon will also be playing on Tuesday.

Botswana Under-19 are set to play powerhouse Peterhouse College just before lunch, Windhoek  have a date against Plumtree at 9am whle Leboken take on Churchill School at 11.30am.

Fixtures Tuesday 6 May
Jubilee Field 1st XV: Gifford v Watershed (8am), Windhoek v Plumtree (9.10am), Allan Wilson v St Johns College (10.20am), Lebokeng College (Botswana) v Churchill (11.30am), Peterhouse v U19 Botswana (12.40pm), Prince Edward v Lomagundi (1.50 pm), Falcon v Eaglesvale (3pm), St Georges v Kyle College (4.10pm).
Avenues Field 1st XV: Vainona v Goromonzi, Marondera v Milton, Mazowe v SEC, Murehwa v Jameson, Heritage v St Johns Emerald Hill, Hillcrest v Hellenic, Kutama v St Ignatius.
Chapel Field Under-16s: Victoria High v BMC (9am), Chinhoyi 1st v St John Chikwaka (10am) Prince Edward v Hillcrest (11am), MCC v St John’s College (12pm), Mbare Academy v St Georges College (1pm), Churchill v Kyle College (2pm), Plumtree v Peterhouse (3pm).