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Mbachi Mutukula-Maregere Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Under-18 rugby team’s coach Godwin “Jaws” Murambiwa has urged coaches from schools to give the selected players a chance to rest to avoid injuries as the side prepares for the Craven Week Rugby Festival that will be held in Western Cape, South Africa, next month.
He said they are aware that the schools league will continue this week and for them to have an injury free side, the schools must give the players time to rest during the league games.
Murambiwa felt it was going to be good for him and the team’s management to have a full squad of 29 players with a clean bill of health.
Already a number of players are currently nursing injuries and among them are Angus Bruce, Tarisai Mapfumo, Ernest Mudzengerere, Liam Kenny and Kelvin Chisango.
“Fortunately we have a big squad of 29 players but if the injuries sustains, then we are going to use the reserve players who were not supposed to travel with us.
“We do not want to have the problems which we experienced in the past years where we waited for the players to get fit again and they failed to do so.
“We know that the schools league continues (this week) but it could have been good for us to start the camp with a full squad of fully fit players.
“What we want is to take players who are fit enough to get good results for us.
“Out of the seven injured players, five of them, who we expected to be in the starting line-up, were sitting out because of injuries so we urge the schools to give them a chance to rest to avoid new injuries.
“We enjoyed the camp and the boys were all eager to learn. The boys need to practice the new game skills in their various schools but they must avoid injuries.
“Hopefully the boys have learnt more and they will be ready before we go to South Africa.
With the experience which we have, we can put up a good show at the Craven Week.
“I just feel bad that we started our camp with seven injured players,” said Murambiwa.
The Under-18s will have four training sessions before the tour and they will be called back on July 7 for another training camp.
The director of rugby Brighton Chivandire also attended the team’s training camp and encouraged them to improve on their scrums, defence and line-outs.
“We had the director of rugby Brighton Chivandire and obviously since he came into the new job, there are some drills that he must set like the line-outs, ruck work, defence and scrummage.
“We believe it is important to practice what Brighton was teaching them because if the boys start doing this at junior level, then they will be excellent players for both the Zimbabwe Under-19 side and the national team.
“A lot of the drills are similar to what we would have worked with, and so it was very nice to have the director of rugby around,” Murambiwa said.
The Zimbabwe Under-18 Craven Week Squad
Akim Sibanda, Brian Mutanga, Samuel Garnett, Levi Fargnoli, Tinashe Muchena, Stuart Marriott-Dodington, John Burnett, Ross Zeederburg, Campbell Nyakudya, Benjamin Meredith, Tinotenda Vheriwa, Francis Angus Bruce, Jordan Zietsman, Sam Phiri, Tarisai Mapfumo, Cameron Harrison, Cleopas Kundiona, Kelvin Chisango, Liam Kenny, Ernest Mudzengerere, Russell Dinha, Shingirai Katsvere, Tungamirai Mashungu, Graham Kaulback.
Online Reporter