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Grace Chingoma-Senior Sports Reporter
THE Junior Sables are seeking to repeat the feat of that golden era between 2009 to 2011 when they won the Barthes Trophy in consecutive years as they play hosts Kenya in the final of the continental tournament tomorrow at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi.
The Zimbabwe Under-20 national team go into the final knowing they have already qualified for the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy, along with their East African opponents, who host the global event in July.
Retaining the title will be an icing on the cake for the defending champions.
Before last year’s victory, the Junior Sables had last won the African title in 2011. They had also won it in 2009 and 2010.
The Zimbabwe Rugby Union vice-president responsible for the Under-20 team Martin Shone, who is Nairobi with the side, said the final preparations for the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy begin now.
He said they will not be returning to Nairobi in July to make up the numbers.
“It has been a long journey, a lot of work has been put in, a lot of preparations with limited resources.
“Now we go back and start working to obviously make our point in the Junior World Trophy, we are not just going there to make numbers.
“We want to win the Junior World Trophy,” said Shone.
The vice-president said the junior team has tremendously improved over the years.
“It has been work in progress with the Under-20s which started three years ago. Last year we came down to Nairobi. We came ranked sixth and we left here ranked number one in Africa outside South Africa.
“We won the Barthes Trophy. We came back to defend the Trophy this year which would automatically qualify us for the Junior World Trophy which would be held here in Nairobi in July.
“Kenya automatically qualified as hosts so we needed to beat Tunisia for us to qualify, after Kenya had beaten Namibia. We needed to beat Tunisia and we did that.
“The goal is to bring back the trophy and we are hoping to defend the trophy just to put the cherry on the icing,” said Shone.
The Junior Sables coach Shaun De Souza declared before he left for the East African nation that they are going to defend the trophy.
So far everything is pointing to that. Zimbabwe hammered Cote d’Ivoire 55-0 in the quarter-final before they made light work of Tunisia on Wednesday, beating them 60-6.
The Panashe Zuze-captained side tomorrow will face the Kenyan side which beat last year’s finalists Namibia 24 – 13 in the other semi-final.
The Zimbabwean team is fully aware that this would be a much tougher competition.
Meanwhile, World Rugby have released the fixtures for the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy scheduled from July 15 to 30 in Nairobi.
The Junior Sables will take on Scotland in the opening game before the hosts Kenya take on Samoa in a later kick-off.
Zimbabwe are in Pool A alongside Scotland, Uruguay and Canada/USA.
Pool B has Spain, Samoa, Kenya and Hong Kong China.
World Rugby Under-20 Trophy is the second level of the World Rugby tournament structure for Under-20 national sides. The winners of this competition will qualify for the top-tier competition, the World Rugby Under-20 Championship 2024.
Fixtures:
Barthes Trophy final:
Tomorrow: Zimbabwe v Kenya (Nyayo National Stadium, Kenya)
World Rugby Under-20 Trophy:
15 July: Scotland v Zimbabwe, Samoa v Kenya, Uruguay v Canada/USA, Spain v Hong Kong China
July 20: Samoa v Hong Kong China, Uruguay v Zimbabwe, Scotland v Canada/USA, Spain v Kenya.
July 25: Canada/USA v Zimbabwe, Kenya v Hong Kong China, Spain v Samoa, Scotland v Uruguay.
Junior Sables Squad
Forwards: Happias Zhou, Gary Zisengwe, Stanley Muranganwa, Vincent Chimwendo, Muzuva Gutu, Halger Muchenje, Tadiwa Chinwada, Gealan Jaricha, Tanaka GondoMukandapi, Huntley Masterson, Tawanyasha Bwanya, Ngobile Manyara, Bryan Chiang, allan Mawunga, Leo Mutendi, Tanaka Ndoro.
Backs: Panashe Zuze, Brendan Marume, Dion Khumalo, Brendan Jameson, Shadrick Mandaza, Benoni Nhekairo, Tanaka Chinyanga, Panashe Mugorogodi, Simbarashe Kanyangarara, Alex Nyamunda, Edward Sigauke, Taonaishe Mapani.
Online Reporter