World Rugby Chairman Brett Robinson Revisits His Rugby Roots in Zimbabwe
Thirty-two years after touring Zimbabwe with the Emerging Wallabies, World Rugby Chair Brett Robinson returns to revisit old memories, familiar faces and the moments that shaped his journey.
HARARE, Zimbabwe – It’s been 32 years since Brett Robinson, the Chairman of World Rugby, played a game in Zimbabwe for a young Australian developmental side against the hosts’ senior national team in 1994.
There is quite a bit he remembers well from the Harare leg of the emerging Wallabies’ tour of Southern Africa, with one memory prompted by the Zimbabweans’ dominance at the set piece during that contest.
Alex Nicholls, one of Zimbabwe’s greatest players of all time and a veteran of two World Cups in 1987 and 1991, played in that match at the Police Grounds in Harare. The former Sables prop recalls the home side giving the Aussies something to ponder, despite ultimately losing to the tourists.
“It was a very good game indeed,” Nicholls says.
“Shaun Landman, one of our lock forwards, we called him Bus Driver, was outstanding throughout the match. He won all our line-outs and pinched a few of theirs.”
Reminded of it three decades later, Robinson – who was on an official visit to Zimbabwe – attested to the Achilles heel of the youthful Australian side on that tour.
“I remember our coach on the tour, John Connolly, wasn’t happy at all with our line-outs that day,” Robinson tells Rugby Africa Media.
“But we had a wonderful trip down here to Zimbabwe, I think it was one of the best matches we played on tour before we went down to South Africa and played against the South Africa ‘A’ side.”
Away from the rugby in the Zimbabwean capital, the Australians spent some time in the world-famous tourist town of Victoria Falls, which provided the team’s favourite off-field experience during the trip.
“It was one of the best memories of the tour. We stayed in one of the nicest resorts in Victoria Falls,” Robinson says.
“John said ‘no matter what you do, you don’t want us to be doing bungee-diving off the bridge’ and of course, we all obliged until the very last night. Daniel Herbert, who is the current Chair of Rugby Australia, and another fellow, unbuttoned their blazers and their shirts and bungee-dived from the bridge. I certainly remember that event.”
Robinson, 56, would go on to make his senior Australia debut two years after the tour of Southern Africa, earning 16 Test caps for the Wallabies as a hard-as-nails flanker between 1996 and 1998.
In November 2024, he became the first elected Chair of World Rugby from the southern hemisphere, replacing former England captain Sir Bill Beaumont.
Robinson was on a four-day visit to Zimbabwe, accompanied by Rugby Africa President and World Rugby Executive Board member Herbert Mensah, alongside David Carrigy, the Chief of International Federation at the sport’s international governing body.
Mensah also played club rugby in Zimbabwe in the early to mid-1980s, leading to his selection at right wing for the country’s leading provincial side, Mashonaland, in a June 1985 warm-up match against touring Italy in Harare.
The two former players went down memory lane on Tuesday by visiting the venue of both games, known then as Police Grounds and now renamed Mkushi.
Written by Enock Muchinjo
