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Grace Chingoma
Senior Sports Reporter
THE Junior Sables technical team has made changes to the team that will take on Uruguay as they seek their first victory at the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy this morning at Nyayo Stadium in Kenya.
The match is at 11 am local time.
Junior Sables coach Shaun De Souza believes they are still in the hunt. They meet a Uruguayan side that beat the United States of America 33-31 in a dramatic win on Saturday when Zimbabwe were hammered 64-33 by Scotland.
“We are very positive about how we performed our second half versus Scotland. It gave us the opportunity to express ourselves and we know our capabilities in the running style of rugby that we enjoy playing.
“We have to give it our all and the spirit in the camp is definitely showing that we have the right mindset and the boys are ready for it,” said De Souza.
The coach has made some changes which he believes will help them keep their campaign alive after losing the opener.
Tamuka Kambani, who replaced injured Huntley Materson, is expected to start.
“Tamuka will start to quickly give him a run and climatisation into the tournament and get settled. He brings in a lot of confidence, heart and passion for the team.
“We have brought in Gealan Jaricha into loosehead and Ngobile Manyara into tighthead, Tamuka Kambani into the lock position. We have moved Allan Mawunga to come into the bomb squad and brought in Muzuva Gutu.
“We are trying just to set up a platform with the forwards where we want to go hard and still have a bomb squad that will come in and do what they did against Scotland.
“So our bomb squad into the forwards still remains the same.
“The backs; we are starting with Shadreck Mandaza and we have now moved Simba Kanyangarara from the wing to the replacement half-back as he is our utility back. He covers the half-back position, so he will support Shadreck in that department.
“We have brought into the starting line-up Tawanda Matipano, he is coming on to the wing just to boost our backline. Coming into the 23 is Munotida Munodawafa. He adds a bit of flair in the outskirts there being a utility back. He can play the wing and fullback position, so I think we are covered in those angles and we have an exciting team going out tomorrow (today),” he said.
In the absence of captain Panashe Zuze, who is injured, Brendan Marume and Tanaka GondoMukandapi will be the co-captains.
De Souza says they know how their opponent plays having played against them in the Canadian Series last year.
“We will take things differently against Uruguay. They have a few players who we played against last year in Canada. We watched their game against the USA. I think they haven’t changed really much.
“South Americans/North Americans play a very tactful, slow, dominant set piece kind of like games, they don’t really go quick and wide, they want to go direct and hard. So I think we have put a line-up that will contest in those set pieces that would be able to defend the aggression,” he said.
Zim Under-20 team for Uruguay:
Gealan Jaricha, Bryan Chiang, Nqobile Manyara, Tamuka Kambani, Tanaka GondoMukandapi, Leo Mutendi, Muzuva Gutu, Shingirai Manyarara, Shadreck Mandaza, Brendon Marume, Edward Sigauke, Alex Nyamunda, Dion Khumalo, Tawanda Matipano, Benoni Nhekairo, Tanaka Ndoro, Martin Hakunavanhu, Gerry Zisengwe, Allan Mawunga, Tawananyasha Bwanya, Simbarashe Kanyangarara, Tanaka Chinyanga, Munotida Marimirofa.
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