FORMER Springbok wing Tonderai Chavhanga has expressed his gratitude to the sponsors of the Zimbabwe Academy side for their support to the team during their participation in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge in South Africa, describing the team’s training camp in Cape Town as one of the best local players have ever experienced in their careers.

BY DANIEL NHAKANISO IN CAPE TOWN

The Zimbabwean team, nicknamed Young Bucks, has been based in Cape Town for the last six weeks, using False Bay Rugby Club as their training base during their participation in South Africa’s tier two competition.

The Zimbabwe Rugby Union, in collaboration with the Sables Trust, headed by newly-appointed Sports and Recreation Commission board chairman Gerald Mlotshwa, has ensured that the team is catered for after roping in a strong line-up of sponsors to bankroll the team’s participation in the highly-competitive tourney.

The main sponsors of the Zimbabwe Academy side are international mining investment company Zerttew Resources, along with South African commodities and energy trading company Portnex International and Zimbabwean attorney firm Titan Law.

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International sports brand BLK is the official kit sponsor.

Chavhanga has been impressed by how the South African training camp and participation in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge has impacted on local players.

“We’ve been very fortunate, from a sponsorship point of view. I think Zerttew, Titan Law and Portnex International have been phenomenal in making sure that the team is adequately taken care of,” Chavhanga said.

“You can see from the place where we are staying, it’s been absolutely amazing. All the guys in this camp have certainly said that this is the best camp that they’ve ever been in and the fact that we’ve had one base and everything pretty close to us,” he said.

The former Free State Cheetahs, Stormers, Western Province, Golden Lions, Sharks and Welsh side Newport Gwent Dragons wing said he was hopeful that similar training camps would be held for the team ahead of other international matches.

“The biggest challenge that we face is that if you look at the composition of this team, the majority of the guys are playing all over. So, in the past when we were preparing for tournaments, we had about three or four days to prepare for the games. In the future, it would be great if we could get more time to get the team together and make sure that everybody is on the same wave length,” he said.

“Obviously having had the guys for the last six, seven weeks we’ve got a nice foundation and going forward it’s going to be somewhat a lot easier.”