MRC fails to honour league match
Kabelo Boranabi | Monday April 20, 2015 15:20
Botswana Rugby Union (BRU) secretary general, Jerome Alabu said Cheetahs got five points because of MRC’s failure to show up.
He said according to the constitution when a team fails to honour a fixture, the opposition gets five points while on the record it is 28-0. He also said if the team misses more than three league fixtures, it gets kicked out of the league.
“If it happens for the third time then we will kick the team out of the league because it is not helping the league in any way,” he explained.
Alabu said such incidents are not good for the image of the league and for the development of the sport. He said if games continue to be missed, the union would be portrayed as being lenient therefore hampering the union’s efforts to secure sponsorships.
For his part, MRC president Thari Segobye said the team did not show up for the fixture because of the heavy rains the Kgatleng region experienced over the weekend. “The team was supposed to depart Mochudi at 12 noon, but because of the heavy rains we had to delay our trip hoping that the rains will stop unfortunately that did not happen, so we had to forfeit the match,” he said.
Segobye also said they are experiencing financial difficulties because they do not have a sponsor. “We have written to private companies, but they have not replied us yet.
The other thing is that we play against institutional teams such as Botho Ryders and BDF Cheetahs who are sponsored by their various institutions,” he said.
Segobye, however, said they are not going to give up, as the team its made up young, hungry players who are former Molefi Senior Secondary School students.
This is the second time MRU has failed to honour a league fixture. In the first incident, they cited injuries and financial problems as the reasons why they could not show up for the game.
The team remains at the bottom of the log and still searching for the first win.