Cheetahs choke in SA

Mehluli Sibanda in Johannesburg, South Africa
Zimbabwe. . . . . . . .(12) 17
Kenya. . . . . . . . . . . .(7) 21
THE Zimbabwe national sevens rugby team, the Cheetahs, agonisingly missed out on an opportunity to seal an automatic slot at next year’s Summer Olympics in Brazil when they were beaten by Kenya in a tightly contested final at Barnard Stadium here in Johannesburg yesterday. Just when Zimbabwe thought they had done the hard work to secure the African ticket to Rio de Janeiro, Dennis Ombachi broke their hearts with a try right at the end to make sure that Kenya will be going to Brazil next year.

It was an exciting final which could have gone either way but the Kenyans, who play on the Sevens World Series, made that count even though Zimbabwe will feel that this was their best ever opportunity beat their much more fancied opponents.

However, not all is lost for the Daniel Hondo coached Cheetahs as they together with Morocco and Tunisia head into a 16-team global repechage tournament next year where only one country from there will head to Brazil where sevens rugby makes its Olympic Games debut.

The Kenyans were the first to score with their skipper Andrew Amonde shrugging off the challenge of Njabulo Ndlovu and Eden Agero slotting in the conversion to put Shujaa 7-0 in front.

Zimbabwe got their try in the seventh minute, their most outstanding player of the tournament, wing Tafadzwa Chitokwindo crossing the whitewash from a huge overlap but Lenience Tambwera could not find the target with the conversion.

Riaan O’Neill showed great courage in scoring the second try for the Cheetahs right before the half-time break, taking the Kenyan defence head on and scoring. Tambwera scored the conversion for the Cheetahs as they took a 12-7 lead going into the interval.

Kenya regained the lead with three minutes before the conclusion of the encounter, Collins Injera outpacing the Zimbabwean defence to score under the posts, a try which he went on to convert. A moment of pure brilliance from Chitokwindo, which saw him sprint from his own half to score a try whose conversion was missed by Tambwera, had Zimbabwe in front 17-14.

With the full-time hooker having gone off to signal the end of the match, the match took another turn. Graham Kaulback kicked the ball deep into the Kenyan half with the hope of shutting the opposition in their own half but the Kenyans managed to keep the ball alive, shipped it over to Ombachi who beat the Zimbabwean defence for pace to score for a Kenya victory.

To make it to the final, the Cheetahs defeated Nigeria 31-10 in the quarter-finals and then conquered Morocco 26-0 in the semi-finals. Kenya, on the other hand, saw off Madagascar 43-0 in the quarter-finals and Tunisia 43-12 in the last four.

In the quarter-finals, Nigeria were first to score with a minute to go before the break, Samuel Ekpo outpacing Tambwera and O’Neill to score but the conversion kick from Azeez Ladipo was not on target.

The Cheetahs took the lead just before the break, Tambwera managing to plant the ball over the line despite being challenged and the conversion kicked in by Boyd Rouse put Zimbabwe 7-5 in front heading into half-time.

Less than a minute into second half Tambwera crossed the whitewash for his second try only for Rouse to miss the conversion. Zimbabwe’s star player Chitokwindo burst through to score but Rouse missed the conversion. Skipper Leitao picked up the fourth try of the match and Rouse’s conversion made it 24-5 in favour of the Cheetahs.

Nigeria had their second try of the match with Omotohunola Odulaja squeezing through and Ladipo’s kicking let him down again as he missed the conversion. Kilvan Magunje benefitted from a long pass by Rouse to score right at the end with the conversion booted in for a great win for Zimbabwe.

In the semi-finals, Zimbabwe’s first try came from Stephan Hunduza after a lovely exchange between him and Chitokwindo with the conversion kick from Tambwera not successful. Leitao chipped in with the second try, Tambwera weighing in with the two extra points with the conversion for Zimbabwe to lead 12-0 at half-time.

Leitao had his second try, the third one for the Cheetahs, Tambwera on target with the conversion put Zimbabwe 19-0 ahead. Manasah Sita delivered the fourth set of five points, the conversion from Kaulback.