Cheetahs off to Russia

game of the day before facing Kenya and the Philippines on Saturday.

The Cheetahs are aiming to at least make it to the Cup quarter-final stage and Nyamutsamba knows that they are not going to have it easy in Moscow but believes that their performance on the opening day of the three-day global event will have an impact on the side.

“We have to pick it (momentum) from the first game because whatever the case, the result here is going to have a huge impact on the way we are going to play the next game and of course our overall standings in the group.

“We definitely have to maintain momentum and confidence in all the games and we know that all the games we are going to play in the group stages are going to have an impact on the seeding that will be done for the second round of the tournament,” said Nyamutsamba.

If the Cheetahs are to make it for the Cup quarter-finals, they must finish top of their group or finish among the best two runners up where seeding will be used to determine opponents for the knock-out stage.

The Cheetahs are expected to arrive in Moscow this evening having left the country last night and their last training session at home was on Saturday.

While the Cheetahs were putting up their final touches to their preparations, the Zimbabwe age grade teams were taking advantage of the schools exit weekend to prepare for the Craven Week and Grant Khomo festivals.

Coached by former Sables mentor Godwin “Jaws” Murambiwa, the Under-18 side and Douglas Trivella’s Under-17 sides were camped at St George’s College where they also engaged in a match practice on Saturday afternoon.

This was the first time that the players were getting together since selection a few weeks ago and Murambiwa reckoned that the camp was fruitful as the players were together for three days before returning to school.

“We had a good camp and I am happy that there were no injuries to slow us down and we finished with a training session this morning (yesterday) and all the players were looking good.

“Some of the guys have games this weekend and I hope that they come out clean as our next meeting will be on July 3 to 6.

“The boys are coming along nicely, we had a run with the Under-17 side where we were largely concentrating on our defence patterns but their game plan is not exactly what we were looking for because the South Africans are more of forward play than running the ball.

“However, it was good for us because our set pieces, especially line outs came good and we are spoilt for choice in the back-line as we have fast players and we can play around with them on different positions.

“We also have a solid pack so we are looking forward to having a big mobile pack and a fast back-line,” said Murambiwa.

Zimbabwe’s youth team is expected to get back together for four days before their departure and this would be their last camp before the week-long South African festival also set for Limpopo Province.

The Under-14 side left the country on Saturday for their South African tour which gets underway this morning in the Limpopo area of Bela-Bela, where they are set to take on the Golden Lions in their opening game of the rugby jamboree.