Goshawks fall in Currie Cup

Tinashe Kusema
Deputy Sports Editor

ZIMBABWE’S Goshawks yesterday opened their 2022 Currie Cup rugby campaign on a low note after they were trounced 34-10 by Georgia’s Black Lions in Cape Town, South Africa.

However, both coach Brendan Dawson and skipper Hilton Mudariki paid tribute to the team’s effort and acknowleded that Georgia were the better side on the day.

“Tough game today. Obviously not the result we were looking for,” said Mudariki.

“However, I am very proud of the guys, they put their bodies on the line.

“We knew that the Black Lions were a tough outfit, a very good outfit and we knew what to expect.

“Overall, it was a learning experience for us going forward in this tournament.

“The Georgians are very good in the scrum and their lineouts, so it was a tough outing for us there.

“We will definitely work on that this week.

“The backs didn’t get enough of the game, but when they did get it, we looked dangerous,’’ Mudariki said.

Dawson chose to look beyond the result and concentrate on his team’s performance.

“I am extremely happy with the way the guys finished off today.

“We nearly had two tries of our own in the attack play that we should have finished and put away.

“Unfortunately, mistakes were made as we have only been together for a week-and-a-half, so (I am) pretty happy with the effort,” he said.

He said the Georgians were a very good side. “When the Springboks end up training against them, it just goes to show you how good a side they are,” Dawson said.

As the Sables, trading as the Goshawks in the Currie Cup, began their final leg of preparations for the Africa Cup, the national team’s class of 2014 reflected on the path they travelled in their bid for a World Cup place at a tourney in Madagascar.

This year’s Africa Cup tournament in France is being used as the final qualifier for the 2023 World Cup to be also hosted in the same country.

When Zimbabwe walk onto the park to face Côte d’Ivoire in their Africa Cup quarter-final fixture on July 1 in France, it will be almost eight years to the date when the Sables let slip arguably their best chance to end their long wait to return to the World Cup.

For almost a decade now, the date July 6, 2014, has resided rent-free in the minds and memories of local rugby enthusiasts, players and fans, with some even going to the extent of calling that sunny afternoon in Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo, the sport’s darkest hour.

After having thrashed the hosts 57-22 and narrowly lost 20-24 to perennial rivals Namibia, Zimbabwe went into the final match of the then four-team tournament against Kenya needing two things.

The Sables had to beat Kenya and crucially they need to also score four tries to earn a bonus-point win.

Sadly, everything went pear-shaped during the final stages of that 28-10 win over the Kenyans. Leading 25-10 with less than five minutes left on the clock, and against a 14-man Kenya side, the Sables won a penalty inside the opposition’s 22-metre line.

With the Kenyans a man down, the Sables could have used their numerical advantage and physical dominance to go for the fourth try, but to the surprise of many, flyhalf Guy Cronje, after consultations with teammates, decided to go for post.

That decision would prove very costly in the end, as Namibia won their last match against Madagascar 89-10 and edged Zimbabwe for the ticket to the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England due to better points difference.

Both Zimbabwe and Namibia finished the tournament tied on 10 points.

As the Sables look to take another crack at a World Cup slot, there are some parallels to be drawn between that 2014 World Cup campaign and the current bid.

Zimbabwe’s latest bid started with preparatory games in the shape of the Currie Cup yesterday.

Although they are playing under the name Goshawks in the Currie Cup, they will revert to being called the Sables when they head for the Africa Cup in France soon afterwards.

Once again, the Zimbabwe Sables’ destiny will be in their own hands, as winning the Africa Cup knock-out tournament, set for France on July 1-10, books them a ticket to the 2023 World Cup.

Both teams, arguably the best Sables ensembles of the new millennium, have a balanced mixture of both youth and experience, local and foreign-based players.

While the likes of current assistant coach Daniel Hondo, Keith Murray, Pieter Joubert, Graeme Lawler and eight-man Lambert Groenewald made up the class of 2014, the current unit has a foreign legion that includes Hong Kong-based forward Nyasha Tarusenga, Flanker Mason Mungo, Doug Juszczyk and Johan Stander.

The Sunday Mail Sport recently caught up with a few of the members of the class of 2014.

Riaan O’Neal and current skipper Mudariki, wingers Tafadzwa Chitokwindo and Gerald Sibanda were among others who were in Madagascar eight years ago.

After all, it has been said that; “experience takes dreadfully high school-wages, but he teaches like no other”.

Despite it being a long while since 2014 the wounds from that heart-breaking campaign are still to heal for some of those who were part of the Sables ensemble.

“The 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign still lives rent-free in the head, I mean it was one of the greatest and the closest we have come to making it to the competition.

“Who knows, by now, I could have a World Cup participation on my CV,” said Chitokwindo, now based in Germany.

For the duo of current skipper Mudariki and O’Neil, who are amongst the surviving members, the Africa Cup tournament itself was bitter-sweet.

“I remember the tournament and the lead-up to it, like it was yesterday.

“I was still fresh in the Sables set-up, having only played a handful of games at the time, and remember we got together for a ten-day camp in the lead-up to the trip to Madagascar.

“We had a very good team that balanced both youth and the experience of guys like Jacque Leitao and Fortune Chipendo.

“We also had guys that had just come like Guy Cronje and Lambert Groenewald to name but a few.

“In retrospect, we did actually have a fantastic tournament as we managed to get one over Madagascar in the first game and then came up short against Namibia,’’ Mudariki said.

“We then went into the Kenya game very positive, as we wanted to go out there to win and obviously qualify.

“Unfortunately, decision-making then let us down in the end, and we failed to qualify,” he said.

His sentiments were echoed by O’Neil, who much like Mudariki was still new to the team at the time.

“That tournament will always be a special time in my life and career, as it was my first time being involved with the Sables,” said O’Neil.

“That memory will always be engraved in my brain,” he said.

What is certain to come as a shock, however, is who made the decision to go for post rather than aim for the fourth try.

Rather than plead the fifth, the players have feigned a bout of selective amnesia of sorts.

“Rugby is a collective sport, and as one of the best team sports in the world, we take that loss together.

“There will be no fingers pointed, we just have to take that loss as a knock on the chin and absorb it as a team,” said O’Neil.

Chitokwindo, on the bench for that match, was not really helpful either.

“It’s unfortunate that in sport we don’t really get time to sit and think things through, and I don’t think the players themselves knew the matrix of our qualification.

“I know I didn’t, and only found out some time after the game.

“I wasn’t really aware who actually made the decision on the field, and so I am not in the position to point fingers,” he said.

“When destiny is in your hands, and you have control, you need to be bold, courageous and go for broke,” said Sibanda.

What this means, as O’Neil and Chitokwindo so eloquently put it, is that Zimbabwe should have won all their games rather than dwell on the Kenya game.

“It’s difficult to say what we would do differently, given the chance, because I didn’t know then what I know now,” said O’Neil.

“What I do know is that we would have done ourselves a huge favour if we had won all our games.

“We always seem to be pulling out calculators at the end of tournaments, and I think we should all do ourselves a favour and get as many wins as we can.

All four players speak in a united voice in their belief that the current squad could not only replicate but better the class of 2014.

“The guys are certainly on the right path,” said retired winger Sibanda.

“The preparations have been great for the past few seasons, what with playing in the SuperSport Challenge and now the Currie Cup.

“There is no reason why we shouldn’t be confident that this side can do the business.

“The players, corporates and the support are all there.

“It’s now up to the boys to deliver,” he said.