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players with the giants hoping to continue with their dominance in the competition at Harare Sports Club.
Defending champions Old Hararians and Harare Sports Club will miss some of their players who traveled to Uganda with the national team for the Africa Cup.
But after a good performance by most teams in last week’s games, one of the tournament organisers Gwinyai Mandipira said all the clubs were geared up for a massive showdown.
Old Hararians thrashed Mbare 27-0 in their opening match last week and are expected to play Police in their next game. Their second team also registered a win when they beat Airforce 21-5 and will this morning take on the Police second string team. Old Hararians were crowned the Harare Province Challenge Cup champions last year after they thumbed bitter rivals Harare Sports Club 31-8 in the final.
Mandipira said some clubs could still play well even in the absence of their national team players.
“We were happy with the standards of game that most players displayed last week, especially those in the B League.
“Our major thrust in this year’s tournament is development and the teams playing in the B League were so excited to get the opportunity to play the big boys in a competitive set-up.
“This year’s tournament promises to be very exciting as B League teams have been playing their hearts out in trying to upset the Super Eight League teams.
“We are excited to have four new teams participating this year – two ladies teams and two men’s teams.
“Rainbow Sharks, Harare Sports Club Women II team are playing in the women’s side while Mufakose Swallows and Harare Wasps joined the men’s league,” said Mandipira.
Rainbow Sharks feature mostly students from the Rainbow Hospitality School. They have been training at Old Hararians Sports Club while Harare Wasps were training at Harare Sports Club. Old Georgians and Southern City will not be participating in this year’s edition of the Harare Challenge Cup.
Old Georgians have the bulk of their players with the Sables in Uganda. Harare Sports Club women’s team captain Rumbizai Chabveka said her team wanted to maintain their good form.
“We won last week and we want to show other teams the we are unbeatable.
“Our forwards and backs are quite good, so if we work together as a team today we might be the champions,” Chabveka said.
Fixtures
Men: Airforce II v Mufakose Swallows, Harare Wasps v Mbare Bulldogs, Mabvuku Rugby Club v Harare Barbarians, OH II v HSC 1, Red Lions v Airforce, OH v Police Defenders.
Women: HSC v Police, HSC (Red) v Police, OH v Rainbow Sharks, HSC II v Police II, HSC v Airforce, OH v Rainbow Sharks, Police vs Airforce.