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Though the National Rugby League is not an affiliate of the Zimbabwe Rugby Union, the two are working together for a pre-season Sevens tournament.
The local tournament will run for three weeks starting on February 26 through to March 12 with 16 teams expected to take part.
The pre-season tournament will also be used to prepare the Cheetahs for the Hong Kong IRB Sevens tournament.

Traditionally, the Sevens Series is held at the end of the XV’s season and most of the games are played at Harare Sports Club.
But at the end of last season, there was no such tournament as the season finished late.
However, the ZRU are working with the NRL to slot the tournament as a pre-season event for the league clubs and will also be used to prepare the Cheetahs for the Hong Kong Sevens set to run from March 25-27.

ZRU general manager, Grant Mitchell, who is also a Cheetahs  player, yesterday indicated that this will be the only tournament arranged with the Union that the teams will take part in.
“Our target is to have 16 teams taking part in this tournament and it will run for three weeks. The first games will be on at the last Saturday of February and will run continuously until the second Saturday of March.”

The pre-season tournament — which clubs volunteer to take part in —  has so far attracted only two teams as Police Defenders and Southern City have confirmed participation while the other clubs are yet to show their interest in the event.
With the ZRU battling to try and popularise the shorter version of the game, they will have to do more if they are to attract more teams for the tournament as previous editions of the Sevens Summer series have witnessed dwindling interest.

Over the past four years the number of people and clubs interested in taking part in the Sevens version of the game have been on a downward trend and the ZRU believes that putting such events before the start of the XV’s version could help them.
Sevens rugby is a variant of the XV’s version and only seven players are allowed on the pitch from each of the sides playing the game with an additional five substitutes.

But Mitchell said the 2011 league calendar has been made in such a way that it was build around the international calendar where the local games will be determined on the events and tournaments that the Cheetahs and the Sables will be taking part in.
“The first international event that the national team (Cheetahs) will take part is the Hong Kong leg of the International Rugby Board and that is why we want the Sevens tournament on first as a pre-season event.”
The Sevens Series will end three weeks before the league starts as it is set to kick-off on April 2 and this is the time the clubs have to prepare their XV’s teams for the NRL.

“We are only playing these three weekends for Sevens and after that it is up to the NRL and their clubs to see what they can arrange or if they can arrange their own pre-season games for the season,” said the District Dragons flyhalf.
At the moment clubs are busy preparing for the XV’s game as Old Hararians have already arranged an international friendly against Lusaka Rugby Club while Sports Club are set to start their preparations next Tuesday following the restructuring of their technical set-up.