Rugby is considered a dangerous sport because of higher injury rates, particularly concussions and upper extremity injuries. There was an incident where a Jaguars player, Ishmael Pelaelo, was knocked down and medical officials had to be called into the field to assist. Speaking to Sport Monitor after losing 22-17 to BDF Cheetahs over the weekend, Barbage said there is a need for a league sponsor and club sponsors. He raised concerns that he was worried about the safety of his players because they do not have enough professional healthcare. “We do not have insurance for the players when they get hurt. Honestly, for the players to give their all, they should be sure that they are covered. They put their bodies on the line. Rugby is a sport where you put your body on the line. It is also important for the Botswana Rugby Union (BRU) Super League to have a sponsor.
In order for us to have a sponsor, we should sell a well-packaged product and without a sponsor, people do not take us seriously,” he said. The game started a bit late because Jaguars players arrived late. Barbage revealed that they are struggling with discipline and players are citing work commitments as some of the challenges. He said that coaching in an amateur setup, it is difficult to instruct the players to leave their commitments early to attend a game. “Rugby does not do much to give them remuneration, it is either we get a field with lights so that we can play until late or we continue to play without other players,” he added. Reacting to the outcome of the match that Jaguars dominated in the second half, scoring three tries and earning two points for scoring a conversion, Barbage said they made a lot of mistakes, adding that although they are a young team, that is not an excuse. “Decision making was not great. It is something that I should work on to make sure that my players make the right decisions at the right time. When I thought we had this game, we missed two kicks at the poles, and we gave it away on mistakes. So far, we have not won any league game, which is very disappointing. We have one game against BIUST, which is up to the league committee. There are other teams which will be docked points, such as Jwaneng, UB Rhinos and BIUST I just hope we will make it to the semi-finals,” Barbage said.
