2024 Zambia Rugby Season in Review

The year 2024 was a very long season which had was broken down into League, Regional Tournament and 10s/7s tournaments. The League had two tiers for Men (National – 1st tier and Presidential – 2nd tier) and one tier for Women.

The introduction of the Regional Games meant that the teams had to play more games than previous games which meant more rugby being played. The Regional games gave a chance for the 2nd tier teams to play the 1st tier teams and also meant that there was more rugby played in both the Midlands and Copperbelt towns with the opportunity pf the gated town of Luanshya to host what was one of the biggest games in the country this year when Red Arrows played Mufulira Leopards (Men's) and the Arrow Ladies played their Mufulira Leopardess counterparts.

BARTHES U20 Tournament

The reduced version of the 2024 Barthes Under 20 tournament meant that Zambia who were ranked 6th in Africa had no action this year and there was no local programme for the Under 20 both for the Boys and the Girls and therefore the year was quite for Youth rugby. The months of December saw a tournament hosted at OYDC Under 19 Tournament and KPF but not much activity on Youth Developement by the mother body ZRU.

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2024 AGM Highlights

The year started with an AGM held at Ndola Wanderers Rugby Club where the Zambia Rugby Union promised to look for League sponsors but unfortunately this still remains elusive. Some of the landmark decisions made was the introduction of the Regional Knockout Tournament in Midlands and the Copperbelt, and the introduction of the minimum transfer fee of K7,500.00 per player transfer. The referees pledged professionalism in the year 2024 and it was also agreed that the League would be decided by the team with most points and where there was a tie, the team with most wins and where there was still a tie, the team with head to head win.

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2024 ZAMBIA RUGBY UNION LEAGUE

The League started in April and went on a break to pave way for the Regional games and some tournaments and then resumed with Arrows convincingly winning the league for a record 14th time and a record 11th consecutive year. The champions (62 points) beat their arch rivals Leopards (56pts) with a 6 point margin on the log having beaten them twice both home and away in the league. KPF (06 points) and Roan (-02 points) were bottom of the National League and were relegated to the Presidential League. The Ladies League was won by Arrows (48 points) followed by Eagles (37 points) while the Presidential League was won by Eagles (48 points) with Ndola (28 points) in second position and therefore earning promotion to the National League.

REGIONAL KNOCK OUT TOURNAMENT

The Midlands Region was won by Arrows Men and Women while the Copperbelt was won by the Leopards in both the Men’s and Women. The final showdown was played in the gated town of Luanshya with the Arrows Men’s and Women’s team emerging victorious against the Leopards and Leopardesses 32 -17 and 70 - 00 respectively.

7s/10s TOURNAMENTS HOSTED BY CLUBS

The 7s Tournaments hosted this year dropped from 8 tournaments last year 2023 to only 3 tournaments this year 2024 hosted by ?Nchanga, Diggers and ?Mufulira Leopards, respectively. Red Arrows teams were dominant winning all the tournaments in both Men’s and Women’s categories. ?Teams. Most of the tournaments were cancelled due to lack of funds.

MENS AND WOMENS INTERNATIONAL 7s TOURNAMENTS

The Zambia Rugby 7s Men’s National teams played in Mauritius in June and dropped their 2023 ranking from 5th position in Africa to 8th position while the Women’s November outing in Ghana also saw them drop in ranking from their 2024 ranking of 4th in Africa to 6th in Africa.

The two teams also played in the Zambezi Challenge in Zimbabwe where the Women finished second after losing to Lady Cheetahs White 10 – 5 while the Men who had dropped out of the main cup after losing 19 - 21 to Harare Sports Club won the Plate final against Old Georgians 21 - 10.

MENS AND WOMENS INTERNATIONAL 15s

The Zambia Rugby National team has this year played the Zimbabwe Sables in Harare, Zimbabwe (17 - 19) and Lusaka, Zambia (22 -17). The Copper Eagles have twice come within a hairs breadth of beating the Sables losing by not more than 5 points on both occasions. This is the closest score that the Zambia 15s have had against the Zimbabwe Sables in recent years signifying an improved performance of the Zambia National Rugby 15s team. The Women's team used to beat Zimbabwe but has now slipped and have this year painfully lost twice home (25-26) and (17-19)?to the Zimbabwe Lady Sables.

The Men's team played in the Repachage Pool A Tournament in Tunisia beating Ghana 31-22 and later losing to hosts Tunisia 29 – 07 and therefore finishing 2nd in the 4 nation tournament. The Men's 15s team is the only team which has shown some slight improvement this year but there is still so much room for improvement.

CAMPING WOES CONTINUE HAUNTING THE NATIONAL TEAMS

All the Zambia national teams suffer from very limited camping time before major tournaments with the team camping for as little as? 3 days at a time before major outings. As a result of this it is very difficult to put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the players and so much more needs to be done in this particular area if we are to see any particular improvement in the performance at national level.

PLAYER TRANSFER/WELFARE

This remains a critical component and the new ZRU has committed to ensuring that player welfare takes centre stage. Clubs are enquired to insure the players on travel and injuries in the 2025 season and that the player transfer policy will be made in such a way that the benefit of the policy will be mutual to both club and player. The ultimate beneficiary of the transfer policy should be a player and hopefully the minimum fee will be abolished and instead a maximum fee is what should be introduced to avoid exploitation of the. The transfer fee was absolute from introduction and it is no wonder that there is no published record of any paid transfer fee this year 2024.

2024 EXPECTATIONS VS 2024 OUTCOMES

We had high hopes for the 2024 season as outlined by the ZRU Administration of their intention to improve the various administrative structures and enforcement of policy in line with prevailing World Rugby standards. – 4/10

We had hoped that the Councilors would step up the level of driving the rugby agenda in the 2024 AGM which was to set the pace and standard for all rugby clubs. – 4/10

We had hoped that the gap between the Corporate and rugby would be bridged since the game has been in desperate need for injection of finance. The attraction of corporate sponsors to the game is a collective effort of all the clubs by having good corporate governance practice and accountability at both club and Union level. – 3/10

We had hope that the Rugby calendar for the 2024 would released in good time as possible so that clubs could forecast their budgets and share with sponsors and that the approval and adoption by the AGM would just be a formality. – 6/10

We had hoped that all the Technical and Administrative appointments for the National Team Coaches, Team Medics, Team Managers etc of the National team would be done early so that the people involved could start planning around their game activities and training programmes. – 4/10

We had hoped that the National team players will be fully kitted with tracksuits, vests, golfers etc and National team blazers. – 6.5/10

We had hoped that a strategic plan would be developed so that all Clubs could buy in and align to support the vision of the ZRU Exco.- 2/10

The season has officially come to an end and we are entering a new season 2025 which will commence with the AGM to be held in February 2025. The current ZRU has been at the helm of rugby in the country for almost 2 years now and? have to more years till the next elective AGM. We remain with hope that the coming 2025 will be a better year especially for the international fixtures as this is where the ZRU effort is really tested.

We wish all the rugby stakeholders a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2025.

EAS ZAMBIA RUGBY BLOG

Photo courtesy of MCB Photography and Zambia Rugby Union Facebook page

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