22 Oct 2015

Botswana Rugby Union (BRU) will host its first ever under-18 sevens National Championship on Saturday in Gaborone.

According to a press release from BRU,the championship will bring together four regions Phikwe, Jwaneng, Gaborone, and Francistown to compete for national honours in the one day 7's rugby tournament.

It says all regions will bring a boys and girls team and the teams will play a round robin tournament to determine the winner.

Over 150 participants are expected at the tournament. In addition, there will be educational stalls on rugby values, disease awareness and health issues at the tournament.

Furthermore, BNSC announced earlier this year that they will reserve 10 percent of their affiliates' annual allocation for purposes of hosting national junior tournaments.

It says, this was done to assist the codes improve their capacity to host and identify talent for further development into national team structures, adding the BRU submitted a proposal for the 7's championship and it was approved.

The sevens rugby game have gained popularity in recent times and they will be played at the Rio Olympic Games 2016, hence  BRU sees a great potential in the game hence we found it vital to develop the game from junior level.

“Our national ladies 7's team competed in the Olympic qualifier tournament last month and the men's team is scheduled to compete in the qualifiers in November in South Africa. This has further necessitated a need for robust development in the 7's game”, says the release.

The release further says, the  National Championship, which will become an annual event will therefore offer national team coaches a great opportunity to identify quality players that the Union can develop and keep in their national team structures to ensure success in the future. ENDS