The Victoria Cup has been revived and the tournament will involve Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe
The Zimbabwe Sables, the nation’s 15s squad will take part in the revived Victoria Cup staring on the 22nd of June as their premier Test rugby competition for the year 2019.
This comes after confirmation of the cancelation of the Rugby Africa Gold Cup this year as a result of the main sponsor Kwese Sports pulling out unexpectedly.
In lieu thereof, the Victoria Cup has been revived and the tournament will involve Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) will announce the final squad for the Victoria Cup, the larger composition of this squad will be derived from the Zimbabwe Rugby Academy which had its debut season at the SuperSport Rugby Challenge.
The Sables Trust has expressed its full confidence in sponsoring the national side picked for the Victoria Cup following the spirited performances from the Zimbabwe Rugby Academy.
Zimbabwe Rugby Academy under head coach Brendon Dawson in its first season in the competition lost all seven of their games but managed to push a strong Western Province side close, losing a competitive match 33-13, while also coming within two points of beating the SWD Eagles.
Brendan Dawson has been given the mandate to coach and assemble this Sables team to be announced including his technical team and the new Sables captain.
Performances from the academy and the Sables are part of the ZRU’s long term goal of making it into the 2023 Rugby World Cup – a return to the Victoria Cup will mean that this will have the Zimbabwe taking part in 13 senior competitive matches in one calendar year.
The Victoria cup match schedule:
22 June Kenya v Uganda
6 July Kenya v Zimbabwe
13 July Uganda v Kenya
13 July Zimbabwe v Zambia
20 July Zimbabwe v Kenya
27 July Uganda v Zimbabwe
27 July Zambia v Kenya
10 August Uganda v Zambia
17 August Kenya v Zambia
24 August Zimbabwe v Uganda
31 August Zambia v Uganda
14 September Zambia v Zimbabwe
