Zimbabwe is working towards organizing more competition for the country’s junior national rugby teams who are hamstrung by a deficit of international action, the game’s top administrator revealed on Tuesday.

Nyararai Sibanda, the Zimbabwe Rugby Union president, told Sportszone in an interview at the Coca-Cola Craven Week festival being hosted by Grey College in the Free State capital that plans were afoot to engage his South African counterpart for increased co-operation.

“I have a scheduled meeting with the South Africa Rugby Union president where we shall discuss our proposal for more games against South Africa. This will be in the form of our teams making further visits to South Africa for games and South Africa also coming down to Zimbabwe to play against us,’’ Sibanda said.

“Obviously the arrangement is still at infancy stage so we are still deciding how this will play out. But our biggest concern is lack of game time for our national teams because what has been happening is that after the Craven Week festival there is nothing else going for the teams and we cannot expect to develop them with this little action.’’

While schoolboy rugby is alive and kicking in Zimbabwe with the Old Mutual Super 12 Schools League rated among the best in the world, the country has fallen short in terms of representative rugby, a point that ZRU is decrying.

The situation is also made worse by the absence of a multi-national tournament catering for players below the age of 18. Presently besides the Africa Cup for senior teams, the continental body, Rugby Africa only administers an Under-20 competition for the junior ranks.

South Africa, the world’s major rugby-playing country, has however stayed ahead of the pack and organizes a plethora of junior competitions at national and provincial level, with the SA Rugby Youth Weeks being the highlight of the year.

“Just looking at the quality of play among the teams here can give you a picture of how we stand to benefit by continued association with South Africa,’’ went on Sibanda.

“But we want the relationship to be mutual because we also have a lot to offer South Africa in terms of our rugby. Look at the number of players from Zimbabwe currently benefitting the South African system. That should tell everyone that we have lots of talent and also a conducive environment for developing good players,’’ he said.

Among Zimbabwean-born players who have been a hit in South Africa are ex-Old Miltonians prop Adrian Garvey who turned out for the Sables at the 1987 and 1991 World Cup finals before debuting for the Springboks at the 1995 World Cup that they hosted, and Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira whose schools in Zimbabwe were Selbourne Routledge, Prince Edward, Churchill and Peterhouse.