Former Border women’s coach Sabelo Kolanisi, who was born in Zwelitsha, Qonce, has spoken out about coaching in far away Russia.
Currently, Kolanisi is the Russian national team assistant coach while also working as skills coach for the Russian Sevens and Zastava.
“I started working here last year in January. It’s not the first time that I’m working overseas. It’s my second time as I coached in Lithuania before,” the former Lithuania Sevens coach said.
“It’s not easy being a coach here. I have language challenges, but we have someone who is interpreting for us. Sometimes players don’t get to hear the right message because everything gets lost in translation. Secondly, rugby is still new here unlike it’s the case in South Africa. Schools don’t play rugby on a regular basis and that leaves your players behind.”
Having been away since early last year, Kolanisi, who is going to turn 36 in October, believes that he’s ready to return home and coach in South Africa.
“I’m ready to come back home anytime to work in my country. I worked with Lithuania for four months in 2018. I then returned home after I didn’t qualify for Europen T1,” Kolanisi remarked.
