Murambiwa’s World Cup heartbreak
IT has been 18 years since Zimbabwe’s ill-fated 2003 Rugby World Cup qualifiers, and for many of those who were involved in the 2002 Africa Cup campaign — then referred to as the Africa Top Six — the six-team tournament left a sour taste in their mouths.
One man in particular, Godwin “Jaws”
Murambiwa, who was the Sables coach, has many regrets about how things turned out back then.
“What I remember clearly is that I knew it was going to be difficult. The year before we had beaten Namibia and so the following year, they did their homework.
“They went and recruited players, brought in a coach from New Zealand, I think, and really wanted to win it,” said Murambiwa.
“Our union did their best; they got money together and I was able to fly to Windhoek.
“I snuck in, watched the game that they played against Madagascar and thought we had a good chance to beat them.
“They posted 80 points against Madagascar and that put some pressure on us.”
At this point, there was nothing to worry too much about, but fate had other ideas.
“Back home, problems arose, as we did not have enough time in camp.
“I know Karl Mudzamba got in a day before we played Namibia, and it was the same for many of the overseas players.
“Even with the locals, they had work to do and some came in late for camp.
“In so far as the game against Namibia is concerned, I think my players did their best. Namibia were a little lucky and profited from our failure to convert the opportunities that came our way.
“So looking back, things could have turned out differently had certain things played out our way,” he said.
Zimbabwe finished bottom of their pool, losing to both Madagascar (3-52) and Namibia (42-32).
There are some who believe that these particular qualifiers, for the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia, were the beginning of the end for Zimbabwe’s rugby fortunes on the world stage.
But others contend that the Sables’ decline had started earlier, especially after the 1991 World Cup when most of their experienced players retired.
South Africa took over as the top African rugby team when apartheid ended in 1994.
Namibia and later Kenya, would then overtake Zimbabwe over the next couple of decades. But for the class of 2002, the Sables were coming off from a golden generation of rugby in the 1980s and early ’90s. They had the perfect balance of youth and experience.
Current Sables coach Brendan Dawson was one of the last remnants of that era and rubbed off his vast experience to the likes of Costa Dinha, Prayer Chitenderu, Mudzamba and a few others.
Only a year before, Zimbabwe beat Namibia (27-26) for the first time in almost a decade, and Murambiwa still believes the class of 2001-2 could very well be one of the best Sables outfit ever assembled, or, at the
THE Covid-19 pandemic has provided contrasting fortunes for two golfers — Gary Thompson, who is the president of the Zimbabwe Golfers Association ( ZGA), and one of the country’s representatives on the Sunshine Tour — Ryan Cairns.
Thompson looks to have been the hardest hit, as the 53-year-old revealed that the pandemic has been nothing, but a hindrance.
“First of all I wish to state that a lot of these will be my perspectives, and I cannot endorse this as the president of the Zimbabwe Golfers Association.
“That being said; it boggles the mind how the pandemic has had such an effect on golf in Zimbabwe because there have been no cases at
Royal Harare, no caddies have fallen down at Chapman Golf Club.
“There has been no one sick at
Hillside or at one of our courses.
God’s fresh air is still fresh in Zimvery least, the best he ever coached.
“The Sables that I coached in 2001 basically had the old guys like Dawson and a few others that had played for many years and were still playing, and the team that we assembled for the qualifiers was a very potent one.
“I believe Karl Mudzamba was arguably one of the best wings that we ever produced, and he actually came from New Zealand to play.
“There was a new generation of players, the likes of Emmanuel Munyoro, Costa Dinha, Jeff Tigere, Rocky Gurumani were all young guys that were coming into the fore.
“So I would say that was a good team, and I don’t think I ever coached any better Sables team,” he said.
What this particular passage in time did manage to do was end the 51-year-old’s romance with the Sables, push him first towards age-group rugby and then ultimately out of coaching.
Murambiwa would go on to achieve more success at Prince Edward School, being a former Tiger himself, and the Craven Week squads.
“Some of my more memorable coaching feats were coaching the Prince Edward Tigers, with 2004 being my favourite season.
“We won the Schweppes competition, only tasting defeat to Peterhouse, and that was the side that Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira played for.
“I was nominated for ANSA Coach of the Year in 2006, and that was when I was coach for the Zimbabwe Under-19 squad, where we qualified to go to the Junior World Championships in Ireland.
“I also won three games at Craven Week the following year, and that was a feat that Zimbabwe had never done before.
“By 2009, Zimbabwe were ranked sixth at Craven Week based on the previous results.”
Murambiwa is content with his legacy and now spends most of his time alternating his two passions — rugby and martial arts.
“I was introduced to rugby in high school after not having had access to the sport during my primary education.
“It was also round about the same time that my interest in karate started and that was back in 1982.
“I still do martial arts and hold a sixth dan black belt in karate and a fourth dan black belt in Jujitsu.
“I don’t do it at professional level, but I do teach and have various students in Harare and abroad.
“The karate WKF (World Karate Federation) that I do mainly concentrates on training how to defend yourself, so when you have tournaments, you just show your intent, but don’t actually make contact.
“It’s completely different from what a sensei like Sensei Muripo does, which is the full-contact type of karate.’’
Murambiwa played schoolboy rugby at Prince Edward and had a stint with the national Under-20 side before an injury ended his career.
“I had to quit playing due to a recurring injury in 1990.
“I fractured both knees in high school. (It) should have been in 1986 when this injury occurred, and came back way too early.
“That cut short my career and it was due to Colin Osborne that I managed to switched to coaching. He was the director of rugby back then, and he got me into coaching, doing my level three and then my level two in 1996.
“I remember this experience (level two coaching) mostly as this was the advent of the professional era, and some of the greats that I attended that course with in Durban were guys like Jack White, Nick Mallet, John Hart, Dick Best.
“They have since gone on to have legendary status, with White, Mallet and Best going on to coach the Springboks, All Blacks and England,” Murambiwa said.
course,” Cairns said.
“The impact of the virus globally has just been devastating, and it put a spanner in the works for most professionals.
“It’s been tough for a lot of the guys on the Sunshine Tour and every other circuit not to be able to play and eke out a living.
“Personally, it’s been pretty weird to be home for as much as I have been.
“For the last 15 years or so that I have been a pro, I have travelled for most of the year, playing in all sorts of places all over the world”.
Cairns has tried his best “to make lemonade out of the lemons’’ during the lockdown period.
“It’s been nice to be home, spending some quality time with my wife and our dogs. We actually moved just before the lockdown, and have since settled into the new house.
“We have had a lot better experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic than most golfers, we are very blessed in that way.
“It’s been fun, I have done many things I never thought I would ever do, like starting a vegetable garden and a few DIY (do it yourself ) projects. These have spared me the psychological stress the virus and lockdown would have ordinarily had on me,” he said.