Barbarians undefeated

Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Under-19 team yesterday suffered a 13-17 defeat at the hands of the British Barbarians Independent Schools side who completed a four-match unbeaten run in their tour of the country. Despite the loss, Zimbabwe — who were playing their first game this year having trained together for only four days — put up a polished act that saw them display a good defensive game for the better part of the show.

Coached by Nsikelelo “Sykes” Sibanda, the side were using this as part of their preparations for the Junior Africa Cup that also serves as the qualifier for the Junior World Rugby Trophy.

“I was impressed considering it is pre-season after having trained for just a few days. We should get play time and if we bring in all our guys from outside.

“I was thinking the boys should just maintain composure and stick to the game plan which they did for the entire game but it was just a couple of mistakes that put them through and we lost the game.

“We practised defence as we had watched them play a couple of times so we had a defensive structure to counter whatever they were going to do each time, to shut down that pattern.

“Our guys are almost there but we need conditioning and more ball time,” said Sibanda.
For the Barbarians, winning all four games was a great feat given that the last time they were here they won three out off four games.
Lambs coach Alex Laybourne was, naturally, a happy man.

“It has been a fantastic tour, great people, we have been hosted well here and indeed there has been some good opposition and I really want to appreciate the strength that Zimbabwe showed,” said the British coach.