40 turn up for rugby trials

Over 40 players drawn from across the country underwent rugby national team trials at the College of Medicine Sports Complex in Blantyre on Saturday.

The Rugby Football Union of Malawi (RFUM) hosted the trials with the expertise of the complex’s High Performance Centre which is an internationally certified high performance centre.

Such centres develop athletes psychologically and physically to realise their potential and peak performance through aerobics and anaerobics tests, among others. RFUM confirmed in a statement on Tuesday about the trials.

“Over forty individuals from as far as Mzuzu, Lilongwe, Luchenza and other parts of Blantyre turned up to see if they could be part of sports history. RFUM invited rugby players and non-rugby players to the trials which also included the Cubs [Malawi Under-20 rugby team],

“The non-rugby players, if selected on the basis of having passed the physicals tests, will go through RFUM’s rugby development programme run by Russel Suter at the Saint Andrews International High School. The athletes with rugby experience will be linked to teams currently taking part in different league formats,” reads the statement.

RFUM is now striving to reach out to the teams in Lilongwe and Mzuzu to reinforce its position of growth and development of rugby.

The rugby union is targeting played 18 and above, standing at least 173 centimetres, weighing 75 kilogrammes and more. An ability to split 40 metres in six seconds was a prerequisite.