Churchill Boys High School got their pre-season preparations underway in the most ruthless manner possible, winning all the matches they travelled for in the Hartsfield Schools Rugby Festival in Bulawayo last weekend.

Twenty-four teams pitched up at the venue for the two-day event with only Prince Edward missing from the Harare teams that had registered to take part. Founders High School of Bulawayo were also absent for unexplained reasons.

But the Bulldogs dispatched three teams and recorded a 100% record from all outings. The first and Under-16 teams played two games against Plumtree and Milton Boys High Schools while the second string side was matched against Msitheli Secondary School.

Performing uncompromisingly, Churchill’s first team were huge 52-0 conquerors of Plumtree and massacred Milton 85-3. The Under-16s won 17-3 against the former and wrapped up the weekend with a 31-0 victory over the latter.

The only challenge to the grey blazers was mounted by Msitheli for Churchill 2nd XV but the Harare school eventually triumphed 22-8.

Allan Wilson High, the only other team from Harare present, were also fine ambassadors for the capital city and bagged maximum points in both their first team matches while their Under-16 outfit avoided loss by grabbing one tie and sharing points in the other.

The “Sables’’ celebrated a giant-killing act in seeing off highly-fancied Petra High School, a member of the Super 12 League, 12-5 quite an honourable result that followed the 48-0 thumping of Gifford Boys High in the Harareans first fixture on the opening day of competition on Friday.

The Under-16s also came out shining from their own pairing with the Petra High private school, which they took on a 17-5 scoreline but uncharacteristically dropped points in their second and final tie against Nkulumane 7-7.

Allan Wilson’s rugby resurgence was underlined by the selection of three of their players into the tournament’s Best 15, put together after all games had been played on Saturday night.

Eighthman Simbarashe Singonga and half-backs Leonard Marimbe and Exebia Mavungu won recognition for their brilliant efforts and will be aiming at maintaining the impression on selectors as attention shifts to upcoming festivals in Harare.

The black-and-white- clad Dub also received the Most Disciplined Team award in the Under-16 category. Only three team accolades were presented with Churchill named the Rugby Team of the Festival while Msitheli got the Most Disciplined Girls Team gong.

Churchill returned with three of the five individual prizes including Try of the Tournament awarded to Cosmas Mubaiwa and Best Backline Player given to Albert Garira. Stoutly-built Victor Muunganirwa emerged as the Best Forward.

According to Themba Phiri of the Matabeleland Rugby Board, organizers of the tournament, sponsorship was provided by Century Ambulance Services of Bulawayo and “everything went as per plan”.