Sundaymail Editor
Sports Reporter
ATONEMENT will be the keyword today when the Lady Sables walk onto the park at Kyadondo Rugby Grounds for their second and final Rugby Africa Women’s Cup tie against Uganda.
At the back of their minds will be the 41-0 mauling the East Africans handed the Lady Sables in their first competitive match in over 18 months.
The scoreline itself paints an accurate picture of just how bad a day Munyaradzi Mhonda’s charges had on that fateful afternoon last week.
They appeared out of sorts, conceding seven tries, three of which were converted and spent the most part of the game pegged back in their own half.
Zimbabwe often found themselves guilty of way too many turnovers, missed tackles, and some unforgivable schoolgirl errors.
But Mhonda and team vice-captain Chioniso Mabika have been trying to defend their poor show claiming that the inability to adapt to the conditions played a huge role in the huge defeat.
“The game was very tough for us because we struggled with the conditions.
“It was way too hot, and so we struggled to keep up with the Ugandans.
“(By the time we fell behind) we put ourselves under pressure trying to level-up the score, and we ended up making a lot of mistakes,” Mabika said.
Her sentiments were echoed by her coach.
“The first game against Uganda was obviously a disappointing result, and not really what we were looking for,” said Mhonda.
“There were a few hindrances and challenges that were met by the team, prior to the game, and unfortunately that led to some emotions and feelings that didn’t necessarily go down well with our plans.
“However, we still managed to play hard and the ladies we able to put some proper structures.
“Unfortunately, we were missing some key players, and we were not able to execute our game plan the way we would have normally practised”.
Since their opening game, Mhonda and his charges have had the better part of three days to acclimatise to the weather in Kampala and to generally put their house in order.
Both Mabika and her coach have promised a better performance today with Mhonda suggesting that the Lady Sables need to play with more endurance.
“Our first-half performance was good, but we tend to tire in the second and drop our heads.
“Now that we are moving to the second and final game (today), we hope to have rectified most of the problems.
“Uganda played very well, they played their game very well during the first encounter, we just have to pull up our socks and do a lot better on Sunday (today),” Mhonda said.
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