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THE Zimbabwe Under-18 girls rugby side defied all odds and wrote their own piece of history when they finished in the top three in their debut appearance at the South African Girls Week Festival in Durban.

The week-long festival is one of the many Youth Week Rugby Festivals held in South Africa with the Zimbabwe boys Under-18 and Under-13 taking part in the Craven Week Festivals while the Under-17s play in the Grant Khomo Week.

The girls team overcame a string of challenges in the build-up to their tour to win two of their three games despite travelling to Durban by road.

Under veteran coach Nsikelelo “Sykes” Sibanda, Zimbabwe beat Eastern Province 12-7, fell 0-27 to Border before hammering South Western Districts 19-0.

Unlike the boys teams dominated by players from private schools, the girls team was made up of players from Government schools.

Goromonzi and Vainona contributed six players each, Girls High had five players while Hatfield, Tafara II High, George Stark, Mbare, Dzivaresekwa and Bulawayo’s Amhlope all contributed a player each.

Loreen Kaguyo top-scored for Zimbabwe with three tries at the festival.

Only four players had passports and the Zimbabwe Rugby Union had to use funds meant for their airfares to secure passports for the players.

“For me it was satisfying that we travelled by road but the girls won their first game after a tough journey and they actually played better than what I expected given the conditions of travel and I’m sure if we had flown we would have won all our three games,” said Sibanda.

“The results alone tell a huge story about the potential within these girls because getting a win over EP itself got the South African coaches interested in Zimbabwe.

“They were willing to learn from us on how we run the girls’ game. The good thing is that these girls have been playing in schools structures.”

Last week ZRU president, John Falkenberg, complained of boys’ schools releasing their players late for camp and giving the coaches less time to work with their players.

But it was a different story for the girls.

“The schools were very enthusiastic.

“For example, Goromonzi would call and ask us when we need the girls because they trained three times a week and they availed the players, the clubs cancelled their league games to give these players time to prepare and we worked well with all the schools,” he said