Chivandire’s appointment comes weeks after the Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) announced that they were in search of someone to replace Liam Middleton, who quit his post to take up a more rewarding position in Canada.
A lot of names were thrown into the fray as speculation reached its boiling point but in a statement released by ZRU yesterday, Chivandire has secured the job.
The veteran coach is not a stranger in Zimbabwean rugby circles as he has a wealth of experience and good understanding of the game in Zimbabwe having played, coached and managed the game at different levels.
He is an International Rugby Union (IRU) accredited Level 3 Coach and an IRB Coach Educator who from 2007 to 2012 was the head coach of Zimbabwe Under 19 side. Under his guidance, the team won the Under 19 Africa Cup four times and progressed to participate in the Under 20 World Cup in 2006 and three Junior World Cups in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
As the Director of Rugby, he will be tasked with overseeing coach education, up skilling programmes for the entire country, National Community Development Programmes and to set out a clear strategy for the development of Zimbabwe Rugby’s high performance programmes.
“We would like to welcome Bright to the ZRU in this role, we are looking forward to working towards a positive and pro active environment for rugby to be played in Zimbabwe. His credentials are excellent and having worked with him before, I admire his professionalism and work ethic. ZRU is definitely and most certainly billed for greater heights with an individual like Bright, lets rally behind him,” said the President of ZRU, John Falkenberg in a statement.