Chronicle Editor
Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
THE stage is now set for the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy that gets underway on Tuesday at Harare Sports Club following the arrival of Hong Kong, Fiji and Samoa in the capital last night.
They were the last batch of teams to touch down at Harare International Airport.
The three teams arrived on the same Emirates flight from Dubai with Samoa having spent 45 hours on their journey that took them through New Zealand, Hong Kong and Dubai before landing at Harare.
Fiji’s flight lasted 30 hours.
The United States and Namibia arrived earlier in the day.
But Samoa coach Ramsey Tomokino was particularly not happy with the two hours they spent at the Harare International Airport as he hoped they would get special clearance upon arrival following the long journey.
“It was a long journey, but given that we were on the journey for a long time and it was well known that three national teams will be arriving on the same plane, after so many hours of travel, I think there should have been an arrangement for us.
“It’s not a good welcoming sign when you come for a global tournament and this becomes the first impression you get,” he said.
However, Tomokino — whose side takes on Zimbabwe in their first game of the tournament on Tuesday at Harare Sports Club in the main game of the day — says they were looking forward to the tourney.
“We are looking forward to put our best performance. This is a tournament any team cannot afford to lose a single game,” said Tomokino.
Fiji assistant coach Kele Leawere said they were looking forward to a wonderful tournament, especially in their first game against Uruguay who beat them in the last-minute last year.
“All the teams here have prepared well for this tournament and we will take them all seriously. We lost to Uruguay in the last-minute last year so the re-match is going to be a ‘grudge match’,” he said.
“It’s the first time for all these players to be in Africa and so we want to leave an impression in Zimbabwe. Our primary goal is to win our first game against Uruguay and take it from there,” said Leawere.
Hong Kong coach John Segbach says they were not putting themselves under unnecessary pressure.
“It’s good for us as Hong Kong to be taking part in such international tournaments because it only makes our game better,” said Segbach.
“We are only taking part in this tournament for the second time so we are just looking at making progress, playing against top nations.”
Zimbabwe Rugby Union vice-president, Nyararai Sibanda, and Zimbabwe rugby referees’ representative Drew Williams, were at the airport to welcome the teams and match officials who were also coming from Georgia and Kenya.
Tuesday Fixtures
Pool A: Uruguay v Fiji (2pm), Samoa v Zimbabwe (4pm)
Pool B: United States v Namibia (10am), Spain v Hong Kong (12pm)
*All games at Harare Sports Club.
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