SHOCK as Tunisia Rugby slam Zimbabwe team

By Nigel Matongorere

In a surprising turn of events, the Tunisia Rugby Union (TRU) has unashamedly denounced the behaviour of the Sables players after they refused to take board in a “substandard hotel”.

The Sables are scheduled to take on Tunisia in a 2018 Rugby Afrique Gold Cup match on Saturday.

The Zimbabwe rugby team was first detained at the airport after arriving in Tunis because the officials were demanding over $600 in visa processing fees for the entire delegation on Monday. This is despite TRU previously notifying the Zimbabwe Rugby Union that the Sables delegation will be exempted from paying this amount upon arrival.

The Sables players then spent the entire night on the streets of Tunis with pictures going viral on social media.

This did not go down well with the TRU, who released a statement late yesterday afternoon denouncing the behaviour of the Sables delegation.

“It is important to note that the delegation of Zimbabwe started complaining as soon as they arrived on July 2, 2018 …,” TRU said.

“Indeed, the head of the delegation refused to pay the entry visa fees on Tunisian territories explaining that he did not have the amount requested knowing that the Tunisian union had previously informed Rugby Afrique by mail on June 8, … informing them ….

“Nevertheless, the head of the delegation persisted in not paying these fees, which caused a long delay for the members of the delegation and a four-hour delay. We had to contact CEO of Rugby Africa who spoke on the phone with the head of the delegation of Zimbabwe who subsequently agreed to pay the invoice of the visa fees.

“They arrived at the hotel around 20:00, checked in at reception and all the members of the delegation of Zimbabwe were entitled to a dinner, until then no problem was reported.

“Around 23:00, the head of the Zimbabwean delegation expressed reservations about the state of the bathroom in one of the rooms, the lack of a swimming pool and the low Internet speed. So, he started talking about leaving the hotel on the pretext that it is not decent enough for his team.

“He asked all the members of the delegation to take out their luggage, leave the hotel and spend the night outside on the ground.”

On the issue of accommodation, TRU said: “They arrived at the hotel around 20:00, checked in at reception and all the members of the delegation of Zimbabwe were entitled to a dinner, until then no problem was reported.

“Around 23:00, the head of the Zimbabwean delegation expressed reservations about the state of the bathroom in one of the rooms, the lack of a swimming pool and the low internet speed. So, he started talking about leaving the hotel on the pretext that it is not decent enough for his team.

“The quick intervention of the president and three members of the organizational committee was not enough to calm him down and convince him to spend the rest of the night at the hotel, ensuring that they would find solutions in the next morning with the possibility to change the hotel. Instead, he asked all the members of the delegation to take out their luggage, leave the hotel and spend the night outside on the ground.” -DailyNews