adminCHEETAHS captain Hilton Mudariki says his side is up for the Cape Town challenge and have had a good start in preparation for the second leg of the World Sevens Series in South Africa. Zimbabwe yesterday morning regrouped for the first time since the Olympic qualifiers last month in the Mother City where they had three training sessions — two on-field sessions and a gym session — with Mudariki describing it as an exciting time.
Coach, Daniel Hondo, will see his Cheetahs open their campaign with a date against hosts South Africa towards lunch on Saturday, before taking on Kenya and England.
The Cheetahs meeting with England, coming exactly two years from the time the two sides last met, has already generated a lot of interest.
It was in Port Elizabeth in 2011 that England and Zimbabwe last met, the Cheetahs suffering a 7-35 thumping and this was also Mudariki’s debut tournament in Cheetahs colours.
But for the scrummy, those memories are not welcome this week adding that they are focused on their own game and getting all aspects of their play right despite being considered the small fish.
“It’s been good so far, we’ve had a gym session and two field sessions today (on Tuesday) and it was a good start to the week. The boys are excited and are up for the challenge come Saturday.
“We’re loving it here, It’s an honour and privilege to be part of the inaugural Cape Town Sevens as well.”
Zimbabwe are the only non-core team at the tournament and only play in two World Series legs, the second being the Hong Kong tournament where they take part in the core-membership qualifiers while the rest of the teams play in nine other tournaments.
This has created a huge gap between the non-core members of the World Series and the core teams in terms of funding from the World Rugby, exposure, experience and game-time but Mudariki feels they have to value the few times they get to play among the big boys.
“It’s an amazing opportunity for us to be here (at the World Series leg), we’re not worried about how other teams play because all we want is to focus on our own game, getting our basics and game plan right then everything else will take care of itself.
“All the teams we’re playing this weekend are core World Series members but still I know we’re not under pressure we showed that in our previous tournament (2016 Olympic qualifiers) in Jo’burg that we can match up to the core teams.
“We just need to focus on us and not worry about the opposition,” said the University of Johannesburg scrumhalf.
Draw
Pool A: Fiji, Argentina, Scotland, Russia
Pool B: England, South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe
Pool C: USA, Australia, Wales, Portugal
Sportszone
Online Reporter