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Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
SABLES coach Brendan Dawson has challenged his side to change the face of Zimbabwe rugby by winning the Africa Cup tournament and qualifying for the 2015 World Cup in England.
Zimbabwe will take part in the Africa Cup tournament which bursts into life in Antananarivo, Madagascar on Saturday with the competition also being used as the continent’s qualifiers for the IRB World Cup.
Sables coach Dawson believes qualification for the World Cup for the first time in more than two decades is the tonic that national rugby needs in order to have meaningful revival and become professional.
The former Zimbabwe captain and eighth-man also reckoned that a lot of the local players’ lives would be changed in the event that the Sables advance to the global rugby showcase where they last featured in 1991.
“If we qualify for the World Cup then this means the lives of the players is going to change especially in the build up to the World Cup where we will have to turn professional if we are to be competitive at the World Cup.
“That would filter down to the juniors as well and that is why qualifying for the World Cup is so important to us and qualifying for the World Cup has always been what I wanted to do since I took over as coach in 2007.
“Our preparations were not what I wanted, but they were good considering the (financial) resources we had.
“There was not enough money for us to play friendly games, but I am happy with the 10-day camp we held and the coming in of Baile Swart,” said Dawson.
Dawson yesterday named his 26-member team and there were two huge surprise exclusions that of lock Michael Passaportis and centre Shane Makombe, but the Sables coach feels the men he chose will be equal to the task.
There are six new caps in Dawson’s squad, two sets of brothers Hilton (scrum-half) and Farai Mudariki (prop) and the Ferreira brothers Jan and Schalk who are both locks and three South African-born players.
“To us we have picked the best available squad, but obviously there are some disappointments given that we had a squad of 35 and we only have to travel with 26.
“All the players we have dropped because of purely technical reasons none were injured as of today (yesterday) and we believe the boys will do it. It’s going to be tough against Namibia and Kenya but we have to get past our first hurdle (Madagascar) first on Saturday,’’ Dawson said.
Captain Daniel Hondo added that all the players are excited about doing duty for their country but he feels that the Sables success will be down to their attitude on match days.
“Players at the moment are confident and we all believe in each other so we have to come out and play the game of our lives as it is our main aim to make it for the World Cup.
“The 10 days we have been in camp have been very useful and they made a huge difference to the team, they were exciting and we all feel motivated and that is the spirit that should carry us through the tournament.”
South African specialist forwards coach Swart came in and had a three day stint with the Sables forwards and Hondo, a former Cheetahs vice-captain says they benefited a lot from his expertise despite him being here for a short period of time.
“The time we were with him was good enough because he had a lot of input to the guys who acknowledged that they learnt a lot of things that they did not know before and given that these are players that have been in the game for a long period of time and that some of them are from professional backgrounds it was easy to understand and execute what he taught. “
Zimbabwe will take on hosts Madagascar in their opening game on Saturday followed by Namibia next Wednesday before rounding up their campaign with a date against Kenya on July 6 at the Mahamasin Stadium.
Sables World Cup Squad
Forwards: L. Cleminson F, Mudariki, J. Ferreira, S. Ferreira, L. Groenewald, P. Joubert, G. Lawler, J. Leitao, M. Mandioma, K. Murray, D. Mutamangira, N. Ndlovu, K. Nqindi, S. Sibanda.
Backs: G. Cronje, H. Mudariki, L. Tambwera. T. Chitokwindo, D. Hondo, T. Nemadire, S. Hunduza, D. Robertson, R. O’Neill, G. Sibanda, P. du Toit, K. Lang
Technical team: Brendan Dawson (head coach), Cyprian Mandenge (assistant coach), Brighton Chivandire (team manager), Sharon Mkumbuzi (physiotherapist).
Delegates: Liam Middleton (director of rugby) Colleen de Jong (vice-president and HOD), John Falkenberg (president)
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