Rugby Union get K100,000 Covid-19 relief

MUKWIMA CHILALA writes THE Zambia Rugby Union has received 5,000 euros (K100,000) as Covid-19 relief fund from world Rugby meant to mitigation the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Member teams. ZRU Public Relations Manager Cecilia Mambwe said that Clubs in the World had lost out on revenue due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic hence the decision by the global governing body to come out with a contingency plan to mitigate the impact. Mambwe said that the relief funding that would trickle down to the players was given based on the ranking of respective National Unions and that Zambia being ranked lower only got to benefit the K100,000 equivalent of funds. She said that the mother body will embark on a coordinated distribution exercise of essential Covid-19 relief materials to all ZRU affiliated clubs. Mambwe however said that the Rugby Union will not give cash to the member teams but will instead distributed items such as thermometers, face masks, soaps, hand sanitizers, buckets and food stuffs. “That K100,000 has been divided to 20 affiliate clubs , then fifteen coaches, Referees Association , the women and schools Association which makes about five thousand kwacha per team. Instead of giving the teams cash, what we decided out of the executive meeting was that we buy masks for the players, using a registration which gave us about seven hundred players in total for all the clubs. We shall also do buckets, soaps and then mealie for each individual and thermometers for the clubs,” Mambwe said. Rugby being a contact sport we don’t see much light at the end of the tunnel since we are in the third category as a result we are trying to prepare what we are going to do which can only be individual training so the players are going to be beneficiaries of some of the things as they come back for individual training. The Zambia Rugby Union last weekend cancelled the 2020 Rugby league following resolutions of its executive committee meeting which was held in Kabwe. The Sun