By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE –
THE Zambia Rugby Union (ZRU) has set staging of the International Sevens Championship and securing a new national league sponsor as top priorities for this year.
This follows the union’s failure to host the Castle Sevens international rugby tournament for the past three years owing to logistical challenges while Buildcon Limited did not renew its league sponsorship at the end of the 2013 season after the three-year agreement
expired.
ZRU general secretary Francis Chitambo said in an interview yesterday that the union was determined to rectify all the failures it recorded in the past year.
Chitambo said the new ZRU executive committee was determined to attract the corporate world into supporting the sport as was the case in the past.
The Clement Sinkamba led ZRU had pledged to win back the confidence of the corporate world into sponsoring the game.
“2014 was not bad for us; it went well except for a few challenges that we encountered along the way. However, we managed to implement some of our programs as we were able to meet all the international and local fixtures.
With the new executive in place, we are going to step up our efforts and ensure we can achieve most of our programs and I can assure you that we will find the league sponsor for the new season,” Chitambo said.
He said Zambia has a packed programme this year with the hosting of the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) Africa Cup Group 1C tournament in June.
“Though the country did not perform well at international tournaments, we are looking forward for improved performances this time around and especially that we will be hosting Africa Cup, we should come out on top,” he said.