World Rugby Under-20 trophy confiscated
THE World Rugby Under-20 Trophy, the ultimate prize for the global rugby tournament set to kick off in exactly seven days’ time, was yesterday confiscated by ZIMRA officials upon arrival at the Harare International Airport.
The World Rugby Under-20 Trophy is set to get underway at Harare Sports Club next Tuesday.
World Rugby competition’s coordinator Tracy O’Callaghan was forced to leave the airport without the ultimate prize.
Indications last night were that the trophy had been confiscated as the Ministry of Sport and Recreation had not written to the respective departments (Ministry of Finance/ZIMRA) with regards to the arrival and special clearance of the trophy.
O’Callaghan said she was not in a position to comment why she had to leave the airport empty-handed but confirmed the trophy had been confiscated.
“The trophy is inside, unfortunately I am not allowed to talk to the media and you will have to talk to the right officials,” O’Callaghan told The Herald.
Fiji, Hong Kong, Namibia, Samoa, Spain, the United States and Uruguay will be in Zimbabwe for at least 18 days, taking part in the second tier youth rugby competition that is only happening in Africa for the second time.
The first time an African country hosted this event was in 2009, when it was still called the Junior World Rugby Trophy with Kenya hosting the event.
Zimbabwe Rugby Union chief executive Colleen de Jong, who arrived on the same flight with O’Callaghan, said tournament director at World Rugby tournament director Simon Kibble, who is already in the country would be able to comment on that.
“Everything will be ready tomorrow (today) and Simon will be able to comment about the tournament,” said the former ZRU vice-president.
Uruguay will be the first team to jet in as they are expected on Thursday, while the rest of the teams are expected to fly in on Friday.
ZIMRA spokesperson Taungana Ndoro said he would get confirmation from the Airport officials on the reasons why the trophy had been confiscated.
“I just need to get the details from the station manager then I will call you back,” said Ndoro before his phone was unavailable.
Having been drawn in Pool A of the competition, Zimbabwe open their campaign with a date against Samoa on Tuesday in what will be the main game of the day, before facing Uruguay in the second encounter four days later.
On April 27, the Young Sables round up their group games by facing Fiji in the first game of the day and their position in this group would determine their final opponents in positional play-offs as they will take on a team that finishes on the same position in Group B.
After failing to make it for the global stage three years in a row, Zimbabwe finally qualified last year as hosts and the Young Sables feel they will do better in front of their home crowd.