ZIMBABWE Sevens rugby team captain Hilton Mudariki has opened up on his delight after fulfilling his life-long goal to play professional rugby following his move to top English Championship side Jersey Reds last week. BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
The 25 year-old skilful halfback was confirmed as one of the four new additions to the Jersey Reds squad ahead of the 2018/19 season in a breakthrough move that will seen him play in the second tier of English professional rugby.
Mudariki, who becomes the second Zimbabwean to ply his trade for Jersey in two years after compatriot and Sables teammate Kingsley Lang, was over the moon after his move.
“It means the world to me. Since I began playing rugby, I always wanted to be a professional rugby player and that dream has finally become reality. It has been a long tough road of many ups and downs, but I’m really happy this opportunity came up,” he said.
Mudariki, who has played 13 internationals for the senior national XVs rugby side, the Sables, is a brother to 22-year-old international tight-head prop Farai, who is currently on the books of French third division (Fédérale 1) side Stado Tarbes Pyrenees Rugby.
He also opened up for the first time on how the move to Jersey Reds came about. “I got a call from an agent I was introduced to when I first started off at UJ [University of Johannesburg].
“We hadn’t spoken in a while and he randomly gave me a call and said there was an opportunity for a scrum half in Jersey and asked if I’d be interested. I told him I was. Things moved along quickly and I had facetime calls from the coach of jersey and everything was pretty much confirmed about three weeks ago. It hadn’t been announced, so I had to keep quiet about it till a few days ago,” he said.
Mudariki has an impressive résumé, having represented Kwazulu-Natal province in South Africa as a Michaelhouse schoolboy at the Under-18 Craven Week in 2010.
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Soon after high school, he featured for the Western Province Under-19 Currie Cup side before moving to England where he had stints with English giants Saracens and lower-tier side Amersham and Chiltern.
In 2014, he joined UJ ahead of the 2015 Varsity Cup after being offered a bursary to study Sports Psychology and a rugby contract at the prestigious university, which is one of the feeders of Super Rugby outfit Lions.
Mudariki is expected to be a key member of the Sables squad during the 2019 Rugby World Cup qualifiers which get underway in June.
