Online Reporter
Tinashe Kusema
Zimpapers Sports Hub
THE weather in the United Arab Emirates has not been kind to the Zimbabwe Under-20 rugby team and many participating sides, with temperatures ranging from as high as 32 degrees Celsius to as low as 15oC.
And it appears that acclimatising to the new conditions has taken its toll on the Junior Sables as they fell 22-12 to TSC VX in their first match of the World Schools Festival Rugby Cup competition on Sunday.
However, head coach Shaun De Souza has refused to use it as an excuse, as this is the exposure, sharpening and hardening he was hoping for when he decided to take up the offer to compete.
“The trip has been good, but the boys have been having a little trouble acclimatising,” said De Souza.
“We have had some high temperatures of 32 degrees Celsius and lows of maybe 15oC, so it’s been a challenge.
“However, these are the things that we came here for: getting out of our comfort zone and playing in different conditions.
“We also had a short turnaround between our arrival here and our first game and I think that reflected in both the score and performance,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s defeat to English side TSC VX was not the ideal start that De Souza was hoping for, but the Junior Sables gaffer believes that his charges will indeed bounce back.
After all, there are still seven more games to play, starting with back-to-back ties against South Africa’s top side, Paul Roos Gimnasium.
The Junior Sables were due to play Paul Roos Gimnasium’s second team late last night and then square up against their first team this afternoon.
“We do have a short turnaround between matches; then again, that is the beauty of this tournament.
“It helps you work under pressure and we will come out even better from the experience.
“We have two games against Roos Gimnasium after which we will play against a team from Uganda and then Fiji.
“So, there is still a lot of rugby to be played,” De Souza said.
He felt that his side took long to settle in their opening game.
“We took too long to settle and never really recovered.”
“Yeah, we took an early lead but then allowed them to come back at us and never really recovered from that.
“The team committed way too many unforced errors, something we have been working on since that match, which cost us. Lesson learnt,” he said.
De Souza revealed that he was indeed looking forward to meeting Roos Gimnasium, who happen to be the strongest team in South Africa’s schools rugby system.
“We can’t afford to make the same mistakes again.
“We have been working hard on our discipline, trying to manage or reduce infringement and our unforced error count.
“It only gets tougher going forward, starting with the back-to-back ties against Roos Gimnasium One and Two.
“They are currently ranked as the number one rugby school in South Africa and our games against their first and second teams should be very entertaining.”
Zimbabwe are taking part in the main rugby section of the World Schools Festival through their Junior Sables
They also sent a high-performance team to the tourney.
Eight teams are taking part in the competition, and these include Nasinu Secondary School (Fiji), Uganda Schools Select, TSC, Saint Kentigern College (New Zealand), Paul Roos Gimnasium (South Africa), Paul Roos Gimnasium 2 (South Africa), the Junior Sables (Zimbabwe) and Zimbabwe High Performance.
