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‍Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter

THE Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) has completed interviews for vacant coaching positions, with all appointments set to be made before the end of this month.

ZRU advertised all national team coaching positions, except for the the Sables technical staff headed by Brendan Dawson which was beefed up and given a target to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Interviews were conducted over three Fridays last month, with the last ones done on September 25.

Brighton Chivandire, Godwin Murambiwa, Gerald Chipumha, Gorden Chiromo, Dave Nash, John Ewing, Abigail Kawonza and ZRU chief executive officer Sifiso Made comprised the interview panel.

However, Nash wasn’t involved due to work commitments.

Made said they started with interviews for the national men’s sevens where four candidates shortlisted.

ZRU want the appointed head coach to select his own technical team.

“We have finished interviews. We grouped the teams and first interviews were for the Cheetahs men’s head coach where we had shortlisted four candidates. The reason is because we want the global route where the coach will then come back to the technical committee with his suggested team he wants to work with. We also did interviews for the Under-20 men where four candidates were shortlisted,” Made said.

On September 18, six shortlisted candidates were interviewed for the Sables women head coach post, while the process for the Lady Cheetahs and Under-20 women head coach were the last to be conducted.

Two candidates were shortlisted for the Lady Cheetahs post and four for the Under-20 women.

The technical committee is now expected to send names of the best two candidates for each position to the ZRU executive committee.

“Now that we have completed the interviews, we will have a meeting where we will pick the best candidate for the interviews and the second best. The technical committee will then send its recommendations to the ZRU executive committee. In the not too distant future, we will be making announcements of those appointed to these positions,” Made said.

Interviews were conducted via the Zoom platform, which presented its own challenges since it was the first time the process has ever been done over the virtual service.

Head in charge of schools rugby Tungamirai Mashungu has now been given the go ahead to proceed with the process of filling posts for national junior teams.

@Mdawini_29