Every year the national rugby team, the Silverbacks play in competitions both at home and abroad.

However, for the players, they don’t earn much financial reward for sacrificing their time and putting their bodies on the line for country and also their clubs. But they always play first and ask those questions later.

In today’s Saturday Sport Magazine, we profile one of those players, Jean Leonard Twizeyimana, who plays for the Silverbacks and league outfit, Lion de Fer RFC.  

Who is Twizeyimana?

Twizeyimana was born in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city on November 3, 1989 to Antoine Rwatsibo and Evelyn Karushema. The second born in a family of 8, studied his primary at EPA Nyamirambo and Lycée de Nyanza. He holds a diploma in Computer Science and Management.

Currently, he is a spare parts dealer at Muhima in the City of Kigali. He spent most of his life in Gitega, Nyamirambo with his parents before he married in May this year.

He lives with 18 other cousins whose parents were killed in the Genocide. They all eat and sleep in one home.” We are one blood,” he says of the family.

All sport is sport

Twizeyimana was inspired to join sports interestingly by his mom.

"Everybody had to decide on something they wanted to do, my brothers and sisters chose different areas and I chose to do sports, because all sport is sport to me.” 

The 26-year old has played football, volleyball and handball but finally settling for rugby as his preferred sport.

Like many other kids in his neighborhood, football was the sport for Twizeyimana, with his preferred position being in goal for his primary, secondary school and Gitega sector teams.

In 2004, Twizeyimana joined the APR academy as a goal keeper but was "forced out” by the coach. 

He says, "I had a chance to go on and play for big teams but he frustrated me for his own interests. He had someone else he wanted to bring in my position and he succeeded as I dropped out and joined rugby.”

Handball is the other game he played and credits it for helping him become a better player because it’s a physical game and it helps strengthen one’s shoulders.

Playing rugby

In late 2004, Twizeyimana recalls how he was approached by two friends of his (Dieudonne and Bonny), who were by then national team players and persuaded him to join them for rugby training at the Camp Kigali grounds where he joined other youngsters who had been recruited.

His first tournament was at Lycée de Nyanza where he played for ATEM Munini, a school he joined in 2007.

He didn’t play much for the school as he had started training with Lyon de Fer, who trained near his home area and the following year he joined the club’s senior team. It didn’t take long before he was called up to the Silverbacks team.

Victorien Umuhire, who is a childhood friend of Twizeyimana and played with him in the early years at the Quadaffi mosque grounds, says, "He (Twizeyimana) is a cool guy. He listens and respects other people. He is also the number one jumping lock for the Silverbacks.”

For starters, locks are the forwards who jump when the ball comes in from a line-out.

Playing career

Twizeyimana debuted for the Silverbacks in 2008 during the Confederation of Africa Rugby Division 2 tournament in Burundi where they played Burundi and Kibubu RFC and then he has been a regular for the team in every competition, including all tours to the Kowloon Rugby Fest and the GFI Hong Kong Tens.

He says there’s a lot to learn from the Hong Kong tour, "The exposure helps players to raise their level. We play against bigger opposition and the referees’ calls are not necessarily the same we are used to here at home.”

 When I asked him about his best moment, he said, "My best moment is every time I am selected to play for the Silverbacks. "I’m happy with the way I have developed as a player from high school. I was a star in school and now playing for the national team is a dream.”

Twizeyimana may not have many individual or team accolades under his belt, but says he is happy to put his team first and earn the respect of his teammates at club and national team levels.

Olivier Nikwigize, the Lion de Fer and Silverbacks prop says, "He is a good player; gentle in nature and doesn’t say much but he is a leader on and off the field.”