Busy schedule for the Sables ahead of Africa Cup

ZIMBABWE senior men’s national rugby team head coach Pieter Benade, has said that they are expecting a busy next few months as they begin their preparations for the 2025 Africa Cup tournament to be held in Uganda in July.

The continental showdown serves as the direct qualifier to the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia. Benade said they have a number of international matches lined up, especially in May.

He was speaking to Sports Xtra Zim on Saturday in Harare where he outlined the plans that are in place for the Sables. Benade said they will also be working with the Junior Sables side which is preparing for the Barthes Trophy.

“We have organised internationals, we have a nice busy month of May. We have three internationals against Zambia, home and away. We have a Botswana fixture, hopefully in Bulawayo and we also have the UAE coming in and just before the Africa Cup we are looking to also play USA Under-23s.

“There is the Nedbank Challenge, we are going to assist the Under-20s in their preparation for the Barthes and the Outback team from Australia,” said Benade.

He added that this coming Saturday there will be another intra-squad match between Zimbabwe A and Zimbabwe Select before they also face the Under-20s. Benade also reflected on the match that was played this past Saturday between Sables Green and Sables Red.

The game ended as a 25-25 draw.
“Next week we will play Zimbabwe A versus Zimbabwe Select and then we will play the Under-20s to help them with their preparation before the boys are released to clubs for the Nedbank Challenge.

“It was just about to get some rust off the boys, they haven’t played for four or five months so it was just about getting them tackling, running with the ball. So, I’m certainly happy with the way things went. We played in good spirit, nice and physical.

“We saw some good attacks and good defence, so we won’t judge players too harshly but it’s nice to see some of the Sables just showing their class,” said Benade.

The draw for the Africa Cup was conducted last month with the Sables placed in a pool with some of Africa’s top teams – Morocco, Kenya and Uganda. Zimbabwe enters the tournament scheduled for July 20-28 – as defending champions, starting their campaign at the quarter-final stage against Morocco, the winners of the Africa Cup Repechage.

The second quarter-final in Pool A will feature a blockbuster derby between Kenya and Uganda. The winners of these two matches will meet in the first semi-final.

In the other pool, Namibia will kick off their Africa Cup campaign against Senegal while Algeria and Côte d’Ivoire will square off in the other last-eight match.

As the defending champions, Zimbabwe are the top seed for this year’s tournament, having won the Africa Cup last year for the first time in 12 years.

Zimbabwe were the first African team to compete in the Rugby World Cup, participating in the 1987 and 1991 tournament before Namibia overtook them. South Africa also made their World Cup debut in 1995, a tournament they hosted and won.

Since 1991, Zimbabwe has not returned to the global stage hence World Cup qualification is now a top priority for the ZRU. — @brandon_malvin.