Mixed bag for rugby U-19

The tournament and selection regulations indicate that players for the Under-19 Africa Championships should have been born between the first day of January 1993 and the last day of December 1994.
However, most of the players that travelled with the Godwin “Jaws” Murambiwa-coached Under-18 side for the South African festival are younger than the given age and this means that the older players in or outside the schools league will have to fill the gap.
Young Sables coach Brighton Chivandire, however, yesterday said he expects a “mixed bag” of players at the trials that have been set for Sunday morning at Harare Sports Club.
Some of the players that were part of this year’s JWRT squad are expected to make it into the initial squad of 35 where they have to justify that they still have what it takes to be in national colours.
“We are holding open trials so we have no idea of the numbers of the players that are going to participate but at the end of the day we will be looking for a squad of, at most, 35 players. “We are also yet to finalise the selection panel that will be responsible for selecting the players that will be in camp, starting August 15.
“However, it’s unfortunate that most of he players that were part of the Under-18 schools side that played at the Craven Week festival in South Africa are not eligible for selection. But having watched the schools league I would say I was impressed with those players that are still eligible to make it for the Under-19 side and it looks like we are going to have some good players if they come through. There are also some players from the side that represented Zimbabwe at the Junior World Rugby Trophy in the United States and we also expect them to come through so the trials are going to be a mixed bag,” said the former Sables coach.
Chivandire, who has so far led the Young Sables to three consecutive JWRT tournaments and three consecutive Junior Africa Cup titles, added that the side will start serious business on Monday — just a day after selection. After the squad has been selected, the boys are scheduled to train three days a week before the squad is trimmed to the final 26 who will go into camp at Prince Edward in two weeks time.
“After selecting the squad, the players that would have made it will then start training and we are going to have about three sessions every week running on Mondays, Wednesdays and possibly Sundays as well.
“But we will trim the squad down to 26 on the 15th and this will be the final squad selection for the side that will take part at the Junior Africa Cup.
“Our usual training home has been Prince Edward over the last five years, we are yet to get confirmation if that will be the venue we will be using for our training camp but I hope there won’t be much problem.”