Schools rugby league starts

Schools taking part at this year’s 21st edition of the annual Metropolitan Board Trophy League, which kicks off this weekend, recently received a major boost when they got a sponsorship of 100 rugby balls.
The sponsorship, a collaboration between Metropolitan and the Namibia Rugby Union, is part of an initiative to donate a total of 1000 rugby balls to schools currently in the league and also schools where the sport is not being played yet.
Speaking at the launch, Metropolitan Namibia’s financial director, Le-Anne van Zyl said the partnership with the NRU aims to enable the union to meet its objective of developing rugby at grassroots levels. “Sport is an important tool that can be used to overcome many challenges and hardships, as well as promote a healthy lifestyle and discipline amongst the youth,” she said.
President of the NRU, Bradley Basson shared the same philosophy, asserting that the foundation laid at school level is crucial to ensure that the youngsters are turned into world class players. Therefore, through its initiative in collaboration with the Namibia School Sport Union, the NRU is getting closer to its target of giving away 1000 rugby balls across the country this year as part of its “Bouncing Back” campaign. “We encourage the NSSU to make use of coaching and other clinics offered by the NRU to empower those responsible for introducing the game of rugby to the learners,” said Basson.
The schools rugby league continues to surpass many expectations, as the number of teams, players and schools have increased tremendously. There are now 115 teams playing in the Metropolitan Board Trophy league. The objectives of the sponsorship are to provide schools with access to balls, and to decentralize rugby across the country by encouraging participation from schools not yet involved in the sport.
“Metropolitan has always played a pivotal role in the development of sport in this country, and their involvement on school’s rugby over the past 21 years is a clear demonstration of our commitment towards seeing the development and decentralization of rugby in all regions”, said van Zyl.
The league starts this Saturday on 02 June in  nine different regions, with over 2875 players from 52 schools. This year a total of 115 teams have entered the league, participating in various age groups from U/14A, U/14B, U/15A, U/15B, U/19D, U/19C, U/19B and U/19A to U/19 Super.
League Games will be played every Saturday and Wednesday with the quarter finals expected to begin in August.