Chivandire happy with exposure

in the junior world tournament set for Salt Lake City in Utah, United States, in June for the third time in a row but this was the first time they played proper friendly games in preparation for this event.
Last year, the Zimbabwe squad only played one friendly match against the Harare Province Under-23 select side and this was not good enough for a team that was going to compete on the world stage.
Other teams at last year’s edition of the JWRT in Tbilisi, Georgia, had intense preparation with the likes of Argentina travelling to South Africa for friendlies while Japan camped in Scotland where they also beat the Scotland A side.
And this was the reason why the Under-20 committee, led by chairman Aaron Jani, took the enlarged squad to South Africa where they played three games.
Coaches Brighton Chivandire and his assistant Godwin “Jaws” Murambiwa are tomorrow expected to announce the final squad based on how the players performed during the Easter Holiday tour.
All but two of the 40 players that Zimbabwe took for the tour had a chance to start a game as they tried to justify why they should be included in the final squad.
This was also a perfect chance for the technical team to try out different combinations and tactics.
For Chivandire, winning was not among his top goals, but his main priority was squad selection.
“We had two main goals. The first one primarily being the fact that we need to pick a squad for the Junior World Rugby Trophy and the secondary issue being that we need to work on our combinations and get them right before the big stage.”
In the first game, the Zimbabwe side put up a brave come back from 25 points down but they went down 24-28 against the Mpumalanga Under-20 before the B side were thrashed 88-3 by the Leopards Under-20 team.