adminThe team yesterday suffered a 18-30 loss on the final day of the Grant Khomo Under-16 Rugby Week here yesterday having won their first two games against Lions XV and Griquas Country Districs at the University of Johannesburg Stadium.
This was the first time Zimbabwe were taking part at the Grant Khomo rugby week and coach Doug Trivella was impressed with the overall performance by his side at the four-day rugby fiesta.
The Under-18 side has been taking part at the Craven Week festival since the pre-independence era while the Under-13 side started taking part in the Craven Week only a few years ago, a move that is expected to bring continuity in Zimbabwe rugby national teams.
Zimbabwe won their first game 21-18 against a strong Lions XV side on Monday at the B Arena before they went on to defeat Griquas CD 18-14 but it was against
Namibia on the final day of play that they failed to come to the party.
Namibia, on the other hand, were coming from two defeats and they needed to get a win as a facesaver and they did so against rivals Zimbabwe.
They had lost 0-20 against the North West Leopards in their opening game before a 3-21 loss to the same Lions side that had earlier lost to Zimbabwe.
“I think our strength was the unknown and the Lions possibly thought they were going to beat us,” said Trivella.
“I have noticed they are a string franchise and both their teams in this competition have been very competitive losing to the big teams only.
“They have strength and depth and I believe they expected to beat us but since day one in Zimbabwe I had told my boys we were coming here to win so we did not give them room, we were good enough to win.
“Winning against the Lions XV was a huge confidence booster because they are one of the strong sides here, in fact both Lions sides here are very strong and the boys performed, adapted and learnt on what we did.”
Zimbabwe carried on with the good form as they went on to get the better of Griquas CD.
“But Griquas CD were a bit weaker, it seemed, but we did not finish our chances and I feel that we should have won that game by about 30 points comfortably and the boys know that but coming into the third game we knew they were our worst enemy.
“The second game we were more physical, more technical, our defence patens were brilliant and we were very confrontational something that is always needed, we closed Griquas (CD) out they did not want to run at us anymore.
“They resorted to kicking the ball and every penalty they got they went for the poles because there were no holes and our defence paten came together and the tackling was clean.
“I noticed that the boys were not used to defensive play and in the first game it was more of learning and they got most of the things right in the second game and two quick tries gave us a comfortable leading the first 10 minutes.
“Namibia lost two and we had won two so maybe the boys thought we were going to win the game but in the end we lost to a team that wanted the win more, we panicked, we did not perform, our defensive paten was weak, we did not play rugby,” added Trivella.
But Zimbabwe were in camp for less than a week as they prepared for this festival and Trivella feels his side could have done much better had he managed to spend more time to prepare with the boys.
“We did not have as much time as I would have loved for the boys to prepare but they absorbed a lot and that could be seen from the way the boys played and we carried over to our second game.
“We came here not knowing what to expect, very apprehensive, but some of the boys were part of the Under-14 side that played here before and lost all their games (in the Under-13 Craven Week) so when we were in camp the boys were negative and worried.
“The first thing was to get their heads right because 80 percent of rugby is in the mind and once you have that mental strength you are already there so that was one of the key things I had to work on,” said the former Zimbabwe international.
Zimbabwe Squad
Justin Mendelsohn, Brezhnev Mabuto, Stephen Bhasera, Tinashe Gonese, Daniel Nyamugama,Lebongang Ngwenya, Dean McRoberts, Tapiwa Mangwana, Matthew Maberly, Joshua Worsley, Adam Theofilatos, Taonashe Zanza, Matthew Ushewokunze, Tawanda Ngosi, Brian Chifakacha, Farai Lioga, Panashe Sora, Stephen Mhizha, Tagne Rodrrique, Kuziwakwashe Kazembe, Kenneth Musanhi, Ngoni Zinyama.
Coach: Doug Trivella
Assistant: Sebastian Garikai
Manager: Ross Nel
Online Reporter