daniel chigunwe
Innocent Kurira
THE Junior Sables will troop into camp this morning as they intensify their preparations for this year’s edition of the Rugby Africa Barthes Trophy tournament to be held in Harare this month.
The event is set to run from April 18 to April 29, with matches scheduled for April 20, 24, and 28 at the Old Georgians Sports Club in Zimbabwe.
Only four teams will compete in this year’s edition, namely Zimbabwe, Tunisia, Namibia and Kenya.
Junior Sables coach Shaun De Souza says he will be announcing his final 28-man squad for the tournament next week.
“We will be starting our camp tomorrow (today). On Saturday the team will play against Zimbabwe A in what will be our final preparatory game before the announcement of the final squad. We are still trying to work on our combinations and the attitude throughout all the preparations has been encouraging,” said De Souza.
Zimbabwe are the defending champions of the competition and De Souza says it gives them more pressure going into the tournament as favourites.
“We are going to be playing at home and also we are the defending champions, which gives us pressure to perform well. But what we have done is we have brought in some mental coaches to make sure that we are mentally strong to overcome the pressure which comes with this tournament so that we can perform at our best,” said De Souza.
The winner of the tournament will secure qualification for the 2024 World Rugby Under-20 Trophy, the 14th edition of the second-tier age-grade rugby competition.
This year, the tournament will be held in Scotland for the first time, at the 7,800-capacity Edinburgh Rugby Stadium in Edinburgh.
Barthes Trophy Fixtures
Matchday 1 (20 April)
Kenya vs Tunisia 2pm
Zimbabwe vs Tunisia
Matchday 2 (24 April)
Kenya vs Tunisia 2pm
Zimbabwe vs Namibia 4pm
Matchday 3 (28 April)
Namibia vs Tunisia 2pm
Zimbabwe vs Kenya 4pm
Online Reporter