Dewa’s personal revenge mission

Tinashe Kusema

Zimpapers Sports Hub

WORDS like “revenge” and “redemption” seem to have made the rounds within the Zimbabwe Junior Sables the last couple of weeks, more so now that the Barthes Trophy is just around the corner.

For some, last year’s 28-13 loss to Kenya in the final seems to be the pill that was too bitter to swallow.

Avenging and redeeming themselves for that humiliation, which occurred on home soil, will be top on the list of priorities when the April 17-27 Barthes Trophy tournament finally kicks off.

Edward Sigauke, Trevor Gurwe, Bryan Chiang and a couple of others will be forced to watch from the sidelines as they have since graduated from the Under-20 rugby setup.

One thing that is for sure, though, is that all of them will be watching, either from the stands or streaming on the internet, as they rally behind the team.

And then there is Tafara Dewa.

There is no player more eager to avenge that humiliation than the 19-year-old forward.

You see, Dewa was forced to watch the said final from a hospital bed after breaking his leg during Zimbabwe’s semi-final victory over Namibia days earlier.

“I still remember the day like it was yesterday,” the Zimbabwe Junior Sables forward opened up.

“It occurred on the first anniversary of my rugby career when we were playing against Namibia. That is when I broke my leg. When I went to the doctors, they suggested that I should just let it heal by itself, but I received crucial advice from our team physiotherapist Anne Butau.

“She told me to get an operation.”

Dewa listened and went ahead with the operation, but not before he endured the agony of watching Zimbabwe lose to Kenya.

“We still don’t really understand what went wrong during that game,” he said.

“It was a game we should have won and I remember we were already focused on the Junior World Trophy when we were playing the Barthes Trophy.”

Dewa reckons that “complacency” proved to be their undoing as they thought the match against Kenya was going to be a walk in the park for them.

Junior Sables coach Shaun De Souza has been stressing the mental aspects of the game since the squad assembled to kick-start their preparations last November.