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The tag-rugby tournament will start at 8am and end around midday while the girls’ rugby tournament will kick off immediately after.

Matabeleland Rugby Football Board provincial development officer and Western Panthers coach George “Rollo” Mukorera confirmed the two events yesterday.

“We will have two ground-breaking developmental tournaments at Hartsfield tomorrow and we are excited as an association because they are the first of their kind in the city. Participants will be mostly schools from the western suburbs although we are working flat out to incorporate the Group A schools into our programmes as we have sent some coaches to go and work with the pupils there,” Mukorera said.

The schools that will participate in the tag-rugby tournament are Ntabeni, Helemu, Baines, Masuku, McKeurtan, Zulukandaba, Tategulu and Khumalo primary schools.

Winners will walk away with tag-rugby training equipment.

Tag-rugby is a non-contact 10-a-side game which is played by a mixture of both genders in a team which plays under the rugby concept but ball turnover is achieved through tugging off tags that are worn around the waist. Weaving through players untouched allows a player to go and score a try just like in rugby.

Mukorera said this was a developmental fun game that was only introduced in Bulawayo recently although in Harare it has been in practice for some time.

He said it was a way of introducing the Girl Child into rugby which they were looking at popularising in the city.

After the tag-rugby, girls will take to the field in the inaugural Stanbic tournament where Msitheli High School, Northlea, Mzilikazi, Sobukhazi and Sizane will battle it out for a shield and if everything goes according to plan, prizemoney.

The girls’ tournament is open to the Under-16 and Under-17 age-groups and the province will be looking at coming up with two provincial teams that will go to Midlands Christian College (MCC) in Gweru for matches against Harare select sides next week on Saturday.

Mukorera said it was the association’s desire to develop women’s rugby in the city as there was only one team — Western Panthers Ladies — that is active.

He however underlined the importance of schools rugby in the drive to push up women’s sport in the city and said his association was going to work flat out to infiltrate schools in the city.