Wenslus Murape
Tadious Manyepo, Sports Reporter
GEMS coach Ropafadzo Mutsauki is hoping to see his team take the same spirit they are showing in camp into the Celtic Cup tournament in Scotland next month.
The Gems are preparing for this historic four-team contest that will also feature Wales, Northern Ireland and the hosts from November 1-10.
They have been in camp for over a week.
The veteran coach expected to trim the squad from 21 to the final travelling 12 next week.
The Scotland games are divided into two with Zimbabwe first facing-off against the Scottish Thistles and Welsh Feathers in world ranking games between November 1-6 in Cardiff. Action will then shift to Glasgow where the Northern Ireland Warriors will join the party in the Celtic Cup.
That all the four countries involved are ranked closer to each other with Wales, the ninth-best team in the world, Scotland (10th), Northern Ireland (11th) and Zimbabwe (13th) makes the contest more exciting.
“Physically, they (Gems) are at different levels but we are trying to make sure that they are all up to standard.
“The tournament we are going to is not an easy one at all.
“The games will be very difficult.
“But we are quite confident that they will really show a lot of spirit like what they are doing right now in camp.
“We are trying to make sure that they can coordinate very well tactically and mentally.
“As the technical team, we are where we want to be,” said Mutsauki.
He added:
“As a coach, you always want more time as there is always that one screw that you want to tighten up but we are trying to ensure that by the time we leave we will be very much calibrated for the competition.”
“Maybe on Monday we will be able to announce the squad.
“We just need to see how best we can fuse these young players with the seniors.”
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter