Rwanda has been grouped against Tanzania in this year’s Castel trophy scheduled to start from June 29-July 06 in Mauritius. This was confirmed by Director of Development and Competition in the Confederation of African Rugby(CAR), Paul Sigombe when he was unveiling CAR’s competition plan from 2008-2011 early this month. The Castel Trophy tournament will be played in two regions; Northern region is composed of Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Togo and Chad while Southern region has Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi, Mauritius, Mayotte and Reunion. Rwanda’s participation in last year’s edition held in Tanzania was extremely unimpressive as they failed to achieve any victory in the one-week long tournament but national rugby federation has promised big for this year’s edition. The rugby federation acting vice president, Paul Ogga told Times Sport yesterday they hope a better performance for rugby this season after the new committee has been elected during the federation’s general assembly scheduled for late this month. Many things must be improved once the new committee takes over. Once they are in, it is through planning that will enable our country to elevate its standards in both regional and continental championships, Ogga said. However, Ogga is confident this year could bring better times in international tournaments, especially on the continent. We expect this year to be pleasing due to the fact that national clubs and players are devoted to developing the sport. While another factor, and probably the most important one, is that the players have gained extra experience from taking part in different regional competitions last year, he added. CAR has also included Rwanda in the U-18 development championship slated for July 21-28. This will be a home and away championship between Rwanda and Burundi only for the Southern region while the northern region will include Ghana, Niger, Togo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal and Mali has been named as the host. Rwanda will also take part in the Kampala International Women’s sevens. Other countries named in this championship are: Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and hosts Uganda. Dates for this tournament are yet to be confirmed but that should be done soon by the hosting nation (Uganda). Ends
