Benade gives Smal his flowers!

Zimpapers Sports Hub

PIET BENADE had his first decent night’s sleep in months last week and appears to be a refreshed man.

The former Zimbabwe international returned home with the Sables after a two-week tour of the Middle East and Asia that can best be described as eye-opening and eventful.

With the Zimbabwe rugby team expected to take a break until the new year, a 62-22 romp over the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and a plucky 27-22 win over South Korea put the exclamation point on what has been an eventful year.

Zimbabwe finished the year unbeaten in 22 matches after victories over the likes of Zambia (twice), Uganda, Namibia, Algeria, the UAE and South Korea.

The Sables also played Zimbabwe’s Under-20 High-Performance side and a couple of provincial and select sides.

The run saw Zimbabwe lift their first Africa Cup title in 12 years after a 29-3 win over Algeria in July.

It also saw the Sables finally crack the code and beat regional rivals Namibia, their first victory in 20 years.

Under Benade, Zimbabwe have rediscovered their swagger, with Ian Prior and, mostly recently, former Wallabies Kyle Godwin retracing their steps back home.

In Edward Sigauke and Africa Cup hero Trevor Gurwe, the Sables have found their next big things out in the wings.

Tapiwa Mafura, who missed the Middle East/Asia tour due to club commitments, has only scratched the surface, but did enough to endear himself to the Uganda locals during the Africa Cup rugby tournament in July.

For many, Benade deserves praise, but the Zimbabwe interim coach prefers to give his assistant Gert Smal his flowers.

For Benade, Smal has been pivotal in the new structure and system of play the Sables are setting up.

Smal has taken it upon himself to specialise in lineouts. Against the UAE, most recently, Zimbabwe won 12 out of the 12 lineouts.

“As a result of Gert Smal working with the boys, we have seen a lot of the players being upskilled where they can now manage themselves a bit,” said Benade.

“We have seen huge growth, with David Makamba, Brian Nyaude and Tafadzwa Nyakufaringwa in our lineouts.

“Makamba should be taking all these lineouts and the methods into schools; he is a school coach (St John’s College).

“Everything should just be improving and that’s the intellectual property we will always have going forward as you can never unlearn a skill you will have acquired.

“We are getting skills and learning from a person who has won World Cups, Grand Slams in the Six Nations, coached in Japan, ran the Stormers setup as a director of rugby to become the head coach of the Bulls.

“The exposure to those different environments, all being fed into one component or one aspect (lineouts), is invaluable intellectual property. Our lineups are getting to where we want them to go and the boys are absorbing that well.”

Smal’s work was on full display during the just-ended Middle East/Asia tour as Zimbabwe posted convincing victories over the UAE and South Africa, arguably their toughest opponents during the unbeaten run.

The backs, particularly the duo of Sigauke and Gurwe, provide the bulk of the flair in Zimbabwe’s running game.

However, Zimbabwe’s forwards have witnessed the biggest improvement as they totally dominated the UAE and showed their resilience and discipline when faced with bigger and stronger opponents in the South Korea game.

Still, Zimbabwe are not yet the finished product, as some of the old weaknesses came back to haunt them during the tour.

Game management, schoolboy and handling errors, and the lack of the killer instinct to kill off games were a recurring theme during the tour.

Of the four halves during the UAE and South Korea games, Zimbabwe dominated three of them, with the last almost costing the Sables their unbeaten run.

Zimbabwe allowed hosts South Korea to claw their way back into the game after taking a commanding 17-10 lead at the breather.

With next year’s Africa Cup in Uganda doubling as qualification for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia, Benade does not have a lot of time to fine-tune his charges.

More sleepless nights are to be expected, especially given the fact that Zimbabwe are going into the regional tournament with a bull’s eye on their backs.