HARTSFIELD Rugby Grounds today host the much-awaited Zimbabwe Legends and Springbok Legends match as Matabeleland Rugby Football Board (MRFB) celebrates the ground’s 75 years of existence.
REPORT BY VITALIS MOYO
The match, which will be the climax of the celebrations, will kick off at 4pm with two halves of 30 minutes each to be played.
Eighty-three-year-old Des van Jaarsveld, the oldest surviving captain of the Springboks, is expected to head the South African Legends.
Jaarsveld will kick the ball to start the match and be substituted. The first Springbok delegation arrived in the country on Thursday with other members of the side arriving yesterday morning.
Yesterday, the Springboks participated in a game of golf at the Bulawayo Country Club organised by MRFB as part of the celebrations and a fundraising dinner was held in the evening.
The funds from the fundraising events will be channelled towards the upkeep and the maintenance of Hartsfield Grounds.
Today will start off with two coaching clinics to be hosted by the current Springbok selector Ian McIntosh, which schoolboys from schools in the city will take part in, followed by curtain-raising matches which include teams from Botswana and Matabeleland and a clash of the top two government schools Milton and Plumtree.
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The Zimbabwe Legends side will include Tapiwa Mangezi as prop, while Sean Robinson and Chris Rogers will be hooks.
Theo Weale will be playing as the lock, while the loose forwards positions will have Slatter Ndlovu, Adam York and Andre Coetze.
The centres will include George “Rollo” Mukorera, while at wing positions there will be Craig Smith, Warren Wentzel and Emmanuel Manyoro at fullback position to complete the Sables Legends side.
The South Africa Legends side has been strengthened by the inclusion of All Black Carlos Spencer who has played over 30 games for the legendary All Blacks, nine ex-Springboks and eight previous Super 15 and Currie Cup Players.
The Springboks Legends Philippus Albertus van den Berg, Peter Gysbert Muller, Terence Hilton Chapman, Pieter Jeremy Dixon, Ian Brian McIntosh, Des van Jaarsveld, Howard Andrew Cleland, Adrian Garvey, Gary Teichmann, Gavin Howard Varejes, Graig Driver, Marc Watson, Werner Cronje, John Mametsa, Carlos Spencer, Mac Masina, Henno Mentz, Gert Jacobus Delarey du Preez, Jonathan Mokuena, Neil Dennis Cole, Adriaan Gerhard Erwee, Mark Troyden Wood, Jonathan James Aitkin, Attie van der Linde
