Richard Tsimba

Who was Richard Tsimba?

Richard Utete Tsimba was a Zimbabwean rugby union player. He played as a centre. He was nicknamed "The Black Diamond".

Tsimba was the first black player to represent his country. He had 5 caps for Zimbabwe, scoring 3 tries, 12 points in aggregate. All his caps came at the 1987 Rugby World Cup, where he played in two games, scoring two tries in the 21-20 loss to Romania, at 23 March 1987, in Auckland, and at the 1991 Rugby World Cup, where he was used in all the three games, scoring a try in the 52-8 loss to Japan, at 14 October 1991, in Belfast.

He died in a car accident, aged only 34 years old.

On 25 October 2012, he was posthumously inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame; his living younger brother and fellow Zimbabwe international Kennedy Tsimba was inducted alongside him.