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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) says it is working around the clock to ensure the Lady Cheetahs get adequate preparations for the Africa Sevens Cup to be held in Tunisia in April.
The Lady Cheetahs will face the likes of Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Ghana and Uganda at the tournament.
The African qualifiers are for the Rugby World Cup Sevens that will be staged in Cape Town in September as well as the Commonwealth Games. ZRU vice-president Martin Shone said preparation was key to the team’s success.
“The ladies really did the nation proud by winning the Southern competition. That they won emphatically makes the victory more special.
From here, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done. Funds permitting we would like to have a camp. We are also lining up a couple of tournaments.
We believe if the girls keep playing they will stand a chance against the best sevens’ playing nations in the continent. Preferably if we manage to secure games locally and even outside the country we will be more than ready come April,” said Shone.
The Lady Cheetahs qualified for the competition after convincingly winning the Rugby Africa sevens pre-qualifying competition held in Maseru, Lesotho, at the weekend.
The Lady Cheetahs finished the qualifiers unbeaten and scored a total of 160 points without conceding a single point in all their games.
In their opening match on Saturday, Zimbabwe thumped hosts Lesotho 62-0 before whitewashing Namibia and Botswana by a similar 39-0 score line. They wrapped up their matches with a 22-0 victory over Mauritius.
While the men’s team has already qualified for the Africa Cup by virtue of their ranking, the Lady Cheetahs had to go through the qualifiers.
Four regional tournaments West, East, North and South all held similar tournaments which are a new idea introduced by Rugby Africa to ensure all member states are given an equal opportunity to qualify for the Africa Cup Sevens. – @innocentskizoe
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