Shot in the arm for school rugby

’MATHAPELO TAKISI

MASERU – The Lesotho Rugby Academy (LRA) this week received support in the form of rugby playing kits from the High Commissioner of the United Kingdom, Anne Macro. The event was hosted at the Mpho Community Primary School, in Maseru East. The school’s teacher responsible for the rugby sport, ’Matšepiso Ramoipone, said she is very thankful for the gift as this is a great opportunity not for her but for the kids, indicating that rugby is not just a sport.

Ramoipone said she learned that while they are playing and training with the coaches there’s a lot that they teach the children – more especially discipline. Speaking at the event, rugby coach and LRA development director, Roy Nyasha Zhou, said the playing outfits they were receiving were from the SOS Kit Aid in the United Kingdom – and were meant to be distributed across the country.

SOS Kit Aid is a United Kingdom NGO that works hand in hand with the LRA. He also pointed out that rugby equipment is very expensive to purchase, and that they are lucky as the LRA to have received this particular support in the form of training kits and playing balls to enable more children to play the game. Mpho Community School principal, ’Mamofolo Mofolo, said the opportunity to have rugby at their school has excited them as teachers – more importantly they were happy to see the children engaging in the sport which has transformed their lives greatly.

She said since commencement of the sport in the school great change in terms of discipline is visible; including humility and honesty in those children involved with the sport. Mofolo said children love playing so the rugby sport has taken them off the streets as they seem to be enjoying it greatly. “They like to play rugby and encourage others to take rugby as a sport,” the principal continued. She further expressed gratitude for the opportunity. For her part High Commissioner Macro said their role is to collect donations and hand them over to the LRA to distribute them amongst the schools they work with in Lesotho.

On the other hand, LRA country director, Litšitso Motšeremeli, mentioned that he has received an award known as the Commonwealth Points of Lite from Queen Elizabeth II. He said they have old and new schools that they have been working with, but that the schools that will receive the SOS playing kits are those that did not receive them in the first round of donations. Apparently this is not the first time that Lesotho receives the aid; however, the first one was from a different United Kingdom organisation known as Will Aid.

According to him, the aid is not only meant for primary schools but also high schools as well as LRA male and female teams. Motšeremeli also announced that they are expecting another kit aid from Will Aid in October which will be in the form of mobile phones and laptops for the coaches and the office. He, however could not disclose the number and worth of the equipment received, indicating that they are yet to inspect the batch.