THE National Rugby League (NRL) season kicks off on April 26 with teams saying they are ready for the league despite the fact that the Lion Lager sponsorship is still to be confirmed.
THANDIWE MOYO SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
NRL chairman Noddy Kanyangarara said negotiations were still underway for the Lion Lager deal.
“We have not finalised the sponsorship deal. Negotiations are still underway and we hope to finalise them soon,” he said.
The NRL recently released fixtures for the season which will see defending champions Old Hararians (OH) beginning their title defence against Zvishavane Bulls.
Old Hararians coach Cyprian Mandenge said they were ready.
“We have identified the areas that we need to work on and we are working on them. Hopefully we would have done so by the start of the season. We have a number of school boys and some that have returned from varsity who have always been with OH players such as Charles Jiji and Regis Mutangadura,” he said.
“Everyone wants to be a champion, but we would want to work hard and defend our title. We have retained all our players from last season except Costa Dinha who has retired but will help out with the coaching.”
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Old Georgians who were beaten 29-27 in the final last year, are also upbeat.
“Preparations are on track. We started in January and played in the Seven’s Summer Series before the team regrouped and now we train twice a week. We have played in a warm-up tournament where new players got to play as a team. We have a full two weeks before the start of the season and by then we hope all our international players will be back in the team,” coach Grant Mitchell said.
He said they had a couple of new players who were from the Under-18s who have shown a lot of promise such as Ivan Bawden and Hillary Matema.
Jacque Leitao was retained as captain with Piet Joubert deputising.
Old Miltonians (OMs) player/coach George Savada said they were doing well in terms of their preparation.
“We are doing well so far in the warm up games. We have not been looking at the results but the performance of the players. We have retained a number of our players from last season,” he said.
Some of the players in the OMs side include Michael Zvakavapano, Thabani Sakupwanya, Mayibongwe Ndlovu, Nelson Madida, Velile Ndlovu Lloyd Brown and Essence Ndlovu with Andrea Banda, Sean Motsi and Wayne Ngcobo being part of the new signings.
Western Panthers coach George Mukorera said they were looking good and had five new players from the Under-19s.
Western Panthers have Hillary Nyoni, Roberto Ndlela, Howard Zondo, Leo Kumira, Terrence Ncube, Busani Ncube, Silethokuhle “Slater” Ndlovu, Masimba Musiyapinda, Tichaona Mupamhadzi, Mayibongwe Ncube and captain Kudakwashe Chimukuyu while Simba Jowa and Zenzele Ncube are out injured.
