Siphakeme .Mnindwa
Brandon Moyo, brandonmalvin9@gmail.com
ZIMBABWE Under-20 men’s national rugby team head coach, Shaun De Souza, has hailed the Nedbank Grassroots to Greatness Programme as a resounding success, just months after its launch in October last year.
Speaking exclusively to Mega Clips Media at Harare Sports Club, De Souza revealed that the programme has already started yielding impressive results.
As a key pathway to the Junior Sables team, the initiative not only identifies and nurtures young talent for national team selection but also opens doors to exciting career opportunities beyond Zimbabwe’s borders.
Most notably, the programme has unlocked scholarship opportunities for promising young players, providing them with a platform to showcase their skills and pursue their rugby dreams.
De Souza’s endorsement of the programme underscores its potential to transform Zimbabwe’s rugby landscape and produce a new generation of talented players.
“We are creating a depth pool for the senior Sables team and the Cheetahs. Players graduate to the senior set-up, which is a bonus for our programme. But there is more to it; it’s not just about the players who make the final Under-20 squad.
“The players in the High-Performance Programme also receive opportunities. A lot of them have secured university scholarships and gone to the USA, UK, and South Africa on rugby scholarships through the programme. So, I think the programme has done well and will continue to improve,” said De Souza.
The Grassroots to Greatness Programme was conducted across all provinces in the country, with De Souza and his team scouting for the most promising junior players to incorporate into the High-Performance Programme.
He said it is a two-year plan aimed at empowering provincial coaches who have already built relationships with the players.
“The plan behind this was also to empower our provincial coaches. To give them insight and opportunities to develop players within their own systems. Players and coaches having their own relationships within their provinces are what we were trying to capture. I think it worked well, from the holistic programme we undertook.
“It was about identifying any potential. It wasn’t about picking the cream just yet; we just wanted to identify those born in 2005 and 2006 for this year’s programme and next year’s programme. It’s a two-year plan, which is why we opened it up so wide,” he said.
The Nedbank Grassroots to Greatness Programme is an initiative that came up after attending the Cape Town Conference with World Rugby for the Stronger for Longer Programme, aimed at African countries’ development pathways.
At least 220 players were initially selected before they were trimmed to 110.
“We came up with our Nedbank Grassroots to Greatness initiative, which gave us the opportunity to reach out to all our provinces across the country to see what gems are out there and any potential players we could put into our High-Performance Programme and develop from there. We selected 220 players and then cut it down to 110. So, we are working with 110 players at the moment,” said De Souza.
Once he has his core team, some scrimmage games will be held against the Outback Barbarians on March 19 followed by the traditional Nedbank Challenge Cup, provisionally slated for March 22 and 29.
The Junior Sables are expected to play two test matches against a Zimbabwe A side, after which De Souza hopes to announce his Barthes Trophy squad in April, and more importantly, his Junior World Squad 30-man squad in July.
