opinion
HENRY Blaha once said "Rugby is a beastly game played by gentlemen; soccer is a gentleman's game played by beasts; football is a beastly game played by beasts." The coming on board of Delta Beverages through its Lion Lager brand in 2011 was the dawn of a new era in the game of rugby in Zimbabwe.
Having gone for so many years without sponsorship, club rugby suffered a lot resulting in a number of teams folding as they could not afford to carry on playing rugby, as the costs of transport and running clubs were very high and unmanageable.
This resulted in the formation of the Northern Rugby League and Mid/Mat League in 2006, were teams from the same city played together to cut on transport costs.
It was not the most ideal situation but was a necessity to try and keep the game of rugby alive.
What was more encouraging was the fact that the clubs took the initiative to start and run a league without the input of the mother body.
Because of success of the first two years the passion and love of the game and the need to revive Inter-City Club rugby, clubs from the Northern and Southern regions came together and agreed to combine and form the National League.
The year 2009 saw the birth of the National Rugby League with six teams and the excitement of Inter City Club Rugby was re-born.
Even with that excitement, clubs still had to foot their own travel and medical services bills as we struggled to lure partners to the game.
In 2011, Delta Beverages, through their Lion Lager Brand, came on board to become the first partners of the National Rugby League.
In the past three seasons that we have partnered with Delta, clubs have been provided with branded playing kits, medical kits, branded training equipment that included balls, ruck shields, tackling bags, cones etc.
These were handed over to the clubs and the clubs have been putting the equipment to good use and the results are there for everyone to see, standard of the game has improved, though it might not be to the levels that we would want but there has been a major injection of life.
The Lion Lager National Rugby League has in the past years, through clubs, produced some great players that have gone on to represent the country at different National team levels and competitions.
Having gone for so many years without sponsorship, club rugby suffered a lot resulting in a number of teams folding as they could not afford to carry on playing rugby, as the costs of transport and running clubs were very high and unmanageable.
This resulted in the formation of the Northern Rugby League and Mid/Mat League in 2006, were teams from the same city played together to cut on transport costs.
It was not the most ideal situation but was a necessity to try and keep the game of rugby alive.
What was more encouraging was the fact that the clubs took the initiative to start and run a league without the input of the mother body.
Because of success of the first two years the passion and love of the game and the need to revive Inter-City Club rugby, clubs from the Northern and Southern regions came together and agreed to combine and form the National League.
The year 2009 saw the birth of the National Rugby League with six teams and the excitement of Inter City Club Rugby was re-born.
Even with that excitement, clubs still had to foot their own travel and medical services bills as we struggled to lure partners to the game.
In 2011, Delta Beverages, through their Lion Lager Brand, came on board to become the first partners of the National Rugby League.
In the past three seasons that we have partnered with Delta, clubs have been provided with branded playing kits, medical kits, branded training equipment that included balls, ruck shields, tackling bags, cones etc.
These were handed over to the clubs and the clubs have been putting the equipment to good use and the results are there for everyone to see, standard of the game has improved, though it might not be to the levels that we would want but there has been a major injection of life.
The Lion Lager National Rugby League has in the past years, through clubs, produced some great players that have gone on to represent the country at different National team levels and competitions.
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