MCD draw confidence from Lion’s performance

over the British Barbarians Under-18 side when they host the tourists in their second outing at Lomagundi College this afternoon.
The Barbarians, who arrived in Harare on Friday, lost their first game to the Harare Lions at Prince Edward and are today set to take on Lomagundi.
But the Barbarians’ failure to beat the Harare Lions should give confidence to the Districts team who play a more physical game.
A lot is expected from the British Independent schools who are on an international tour to Zimbabwe. But the tourists’ skipper Jacob Poulton knows that they have a battle on their hands today. The British schoolboys had more stamina than the Harare boys and dominated in the forwards, making use of the right channel which created three of their four tries in the close game.
But the Barbarians were a pace slower than the Lions and failed to make good use on their conversions.
“It was a tough and exciting game but unfortunately we could not hold on to our lead in the end. We do not know what to expect in our next game but I am sure today’s game gave us an idea of Zimbabwean rugby. We can’t wait for the next game,” said Poulton
The Barbarians now hope to get a win from their remaining games but this is likely to be a tall order.
Wilson Seremani, who was part of the Harare Lions team, and is likely to be included in the Goshawks team, was delighted by the hard-fought win.
“Maybe we had over-estimated the British Barbarians. We thought that they were going to be hard, and yes they were hard but we overcame them. It was a tough game but we were prepared for it because we had played against the South Africans before who are also tough.
“So we learnt that if we are to tackle them hard we could fight for a result,” said Seremani. While the Harare Lions thrived on their pace, it will be a different game for the Barbarians as they face a Districts team that has players who have more power. It’s likely to be another close encounter. During their tour to Chinhoyi, the Barbarians were expected to visit Chinhoyi Caves and will also have another game at St George’s before rounding their tour against Zimbabwe’s Under-19 team.