adminZIMBABWE Cheetahs this morning face a must-win game against hosts Hong Kong following a rather lacklustre Day One in the World Sevens Series rugby core-membership qualifier yesterday.
The Cheetahs showed lack of sharpness in attack in both their 14-14 draw against Germany and 35-5 win over debutantes Cayman Islands.
Zimbabwe are topping Pool E due to points difference as they have the same number of points with second placed Germany while Hong Kong are third with four points.
This means a win is good enough to send any of the teams through to the next round where only the top two from each group and the two best runners up will qualify while a defeat is also bad enough to shatter Zimbabwe’s dreams.
And the Cheetahs will have to produce a better show today.
It was in their opener that the Cheetahs let Germany – who are taking part in the tournament for the first time in 20 years – crawl back into the game having taken an early lead and going into the break with a 14-0 advantage.
By the fifth minute Zimbabwe were commanding play through tries by Njabulo Ndlovu in the second minute and Manasah Sita as Boyd Rouse converted both tries.
Germany put up an impressive result as they fought back from two tries down and held out under late pressure before Robert Hittel and Phil Szczesny touched down, Fabian Heimpel levelling matters through his boot.
And these were not good signs for Zimbabwe.
Despite mauling debutantes Cayman Islands 35-5 in the second game through five tries from Jacques Leitao, Sita, Chitokwndo, Hunduza, Zimbabwe remain unconvincing and results from the other teams in the same group have come to haunt them.
Going into the break Zimbabwe had taken a 21-0 lead and Cayman Islands were awarded a dubious try that was clearly a knock on after captain Mark Soto dropped in the corner under pressure from Zimbabwe.
But that did not deter Zimbabwe who went on to add two more converted tries through Hunduza and O’Neill.
derick.khumalo