Cheetahs’ Olympic bid ends

Sports Reporter

THE Cheetahs’ quest to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games ended in Monaco last night after back-to-back defeats to Ireland and fancied Samoa at the ongoing World Rugby Sevens Repechage tournament in France.

Lack of experience looked to be Zimbabwe’s biggest undoing, as the Sevens team went down 31-10 to Ireland and 33-7 to Samoa at the Stade Louis II in Monaco.

Yet the Cheetahs had got off to a promising start when they defeated Mexico 21-0 in their tournament opener on Friday night.

What is likely to cause Zimbabwe gaffer Daniel Hondo headaches going forward is how his charges are taking too much time to settle into games.

In their match against Ireland, the Cheetahs saw the Irish do most of the damage in the first half, scoring their 31 points during that opening stanza in a morning game.

It was a similar tale in the second game against Samoa, as the Pacific Ocean islanders scored 28 of the total 33 points early in the match.

In both games, the Cheetahs put up much improved second-half performances, albeit too late to salvage results.

The defeats totally spoiled what promised to be an exciting outing for the new-look Cheetahs, who are on a rebuilding exercise as both Zimbabwe Rugby Union and coach Hondo look more to the future.

Earlier on, Zimbabwe recorded an impressive 21-0 victory against Mexico, as the tournament got underway at Stade Louis II on Friday night. Nine men’s teams and 11 women’s teams are in Monaco to compete for the three remaining places at Tokyo 2020.

Zimbabwe had looked like they had put aside their shaky preparation and got off to the perfect start with three tries in their men’s Pool A opener.

Following a cagey opening four minutes, Zimbabwe’s Godfrey Magaramombe strode onto a pass from Ryan Musumhi to score the first try of the match through a gap in the Mexican defence.

Both sides had a player sent to the sin-bin shortly before half-time, and Zimbabwe coped best with the disruption as they kept Mexico pinned inside their own half at the start of the second period.

With around two-and-a-half minutes remaining, Magaramombe turned provider as he gave a scoring pass to Sam Phiri on the right wing.

And there was still time for Munopa Muneta to put some gloss on the win with a third try late on.