Chronicle EditorMehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
IT has been just over a year since the Zimbabwe Rugby Union leadership made a decision to go for younger players when it came to the country’s senior men’s sevens rugby team, the Cheetahs.
That move was not easily welcomed as the team headed for the Men’s Sevens Olympic final qualifier held in Monaco. Zimbabwe then finished fifth at last year’s Men’s Sevens Olympic final qualifier held in Monaco, a huge achievement for an inexperienced team. What was more exciting is that Kudzai Mashawi, Ryan Musumhi, Sam Phiri and Godknows Mavara were listed among the best performers at the Olympic qualifier.
In April this year, Zimbabwe qualified for the Rugby Sevens World Cup to be held in Cape Town, South Africa from 9 to 11 September. The Cheetahs secured a sixth consecutive appearance at the World Cup despite losing 28-0 to host nation Uganda in the final.
Last Thursday, coach Graham Kaulback named his final squad of 12 players to do battle at the Rugby Sevens World Cup to be held at the iconic Cape Town Stadium, one of the venues for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Kaulback indicated that they have been working as a group for months, although in an unprofessional setting where players were coming for training from their fulltime jobs.
“We have been working hard as a group for a couple of months now, albeit in an amateur environment with players still staying and working jobs but we have been training week in and week out for a few months. The next step in terms of our preparations will definitely be to go semiprofessional or professional. As you will see, all the teams on the World Series are fully professional sevens outfits, so we will have our work cut out for us but we have trained the best that we can and we will go down there with confidence,’’ lamented Kaulback.
The Cheetahs head off to South Africa on Tuesday with a planned camp in the Mother City prior to moving into the Rugby World Cup Sevens provided accommodation. A sendoff ceremony is taking place in Harare on Tuesday before the team’s departure.
“We leave on the 30th of August for a camp in Cape Town, before we move into the World Cup week and move into the tournament hotel at the Waterfront and prepare for that opening game against Canada.”
On the approach they will employ, Kaulback pointed out that they want to take it one game at a time, starting with their pre-round of 16 clash with Canada on the opening day of the tournament, Friday 9 September.
“We going to take the tournament one game at a time, obviously it is a young group of Cheetahs that are developing and growing from tournament to tournament, obviously with this being one of the biggest tournaments of the calendar year that only comes around every four years, the World Cup. So, we’re going to take the first game against Canada and give that game everything we can and thereafter just take it one game at a time, trying to work within the games, to get everything that we have been working on done well.
“If we can do that, I will be happy with our processes, so it’s so much outcome expectations but more (of) what we are doing in the games and how consistent we can be in the game and executing all the things that we have been working on,’’ Kaulback said.
From the team which took part in the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in Chile a fortnight ago, two changes were made. Sam Phiri has moved from the non-travelling reserves into the final squad of 12, taking up the place of Tadius Dzandiwandira who is now one of the players on standby. Also replaced is Pride Nyameni whose place in the squad of 12 has been taken up by Carlos Matematema. Nyameni has dropped into the non-travelling reserves category.
“The factors that influenced our selection was obviously our performance at the Challenger Series in Chile that we’ve recently completed. I felt that the balance of our team, we probably had a few too many play makers and scrumhalves compared to forwards and outside backs, hence the reason to bring Sam Phiri in for Tadius Dzandiwandira. Sam will add a lot more physicality, speed and side in the forwards and he can also play wing so with that we’ve gone with one less playmaker.
“Sam before Chile had just come back into the country from Poland so he spent the last two weeks really getting into shape. The second change we made was Carlos Matemetema coming in for Pride Nyameni. It’s nothing against Pride, it’s great to give him an opportunity and to see what he could do on the world stage.
He adds so much in terms of competitiveness and spirit, he is a great guy but we know the attacking prowess and the excitement that Carlos Matematema brings to the field and we’ve been working with him on some of the areas that we would have liked for him to work on and he has responded really well in those areas so it would be great to give him an opportunity as well with him being a locally based player is obviously an added advantage,’’ explained Kaulback.
Phiri is one of the exciting prospects in the Zimbabwean squad together with Ryan Musumhi, the Munesu twins, Munopa and Munesu. Jafnos Chiwanza is the most experienced member of the Cheetahs squad.
Zimbabwe Cheetahs squad for Rugby World Cup Sevens: Kudzai Mashawi (captain), Godfrey Magaramombe, Vuyani Dhlomo, Munopa Muneta, Tapiwa Mulenga, Jafnos Chiwanza, Carlos Matematema, Ryan Musumhi, Shingirai Katsvere, Sam Phiri, Munesu Muneta, Nigel Tinarwo. Non travelling reserves: Keegan Cooke, Jerry Jaravaza, Pride Nyameni, Tedium Dzandiwandira.
Head coach: Graham Kaulback; Assistant coach: Ricky Chirengende; Team manager: Tafadzwa Mhende; Physiotherapist: Margaret Gibson. – Follow on Twitter @Mdawini_29
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