One recollection of events from the early days of Rugby in Rwanda.
Rugby started at G.S Shyogwe in 2001. A British volunteer working for VSO, Emma Rees was an english teacher who started coaching students at the school. At a similar time Pierre Hofer, a Frenchman working for Red Cross International was starting to coach rugby at Cercle Sportif in Kigali. The following year, a Ugandan named Francis Kabuye started to coach APRED NDERA secondary school.
It was during this early stage and after a meeting with Ministry; attended by Alexis, Pierre, Jean Yves and Emma that the Federation was formed. The following people were on the initial Federation Executive Committee.
- Alexis KAMANZI: PRESIDENT
- Pierre HOFER: FIRST VICE PRESIDENT
- Doctor GASAKURE: SECOND VICE PRESIDENT:
- Jean Yves Rigal: SECRETARY GENERAL
- RWABUYONZA: TREASURE
- Philip GAKIRAGE: TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
The first touch rugby tournament took place at Cercle Sportif of Kigali on 20/10/2002 with participating teams including Rhinos of Kigali coached by Pierre Hofer, the Kangaroos and Tigers of Shyogwe coached by Emma Rees, APRED Ndera coached by Francis Kabuye, Green Hills Academy coached by Paul Ogaa and two secondary schools from the Eastern Province, Kiziguro Secondary School and GS St Aloys from Rwamagana; also coached by Emma Rees. The final match saw the Rhinos of Kigali defeat the Kangaroos of Shogwe 5-0 in the extra time.
The following years 2003, 2004 and 2005 when Emma, Pierre and others left Rwanda a former student of GS Shyogwe, Kamanda Tharcisse started introducing the game of rugby to additional schools :
PETIT SEMINAIRE ST LEON KABGAYI
ECOLE SECONDAIRE DE TAMBWE
ETO GITARAMA
At that time these new schools began to play many friendly matches with the experienced school GS SHYOGWE and rugby started to grow in the countryside while in Kigali Jean HATEGEKIMANA (Heavy) started a new school team in Nyamirambo.
2005, saw Kamanda Tharcisse travel to Madascar (ANTANANALIVE) to attend a Technical Directors workshop. Back from Madagascar, he Coached Shyogwe and contributed to the spread of Rugby in southern Province Schools like Group Scolaire saint Joseph. At that time, 100 students attended the first sessions and rugby was grown every day after school lessons. One huge problem was the lack of the materials (balls, cones, jerseys) but sessions continued always remembering that the coach Emma Rees had used one ball and socks full of sands to make the area for rugby activities.
From the earliest days, all Rwandans seemed to enjoy the new game, especially on the match day; the whole school including students, teaches and the local people came to support the Kangaroos of Shyogwe regularly.
At first there were some concerns that rugby might be a bad sport because it is a contact sport but slowly by slowly watching their students playing the game they became to think it was a lovely sport at the school.