NEW ERA FOR SABLES

Tinashe Kusema

Zimpapers Sports Hub

RICKY Chirengende was all smiles as he took his new Suzuki Jimny for a test run on Tuesday afternoon.

The car is part of a new partnership between the Zimbabwe Rugby union and CFAO Mobility Zimbabwe in the which the latter has come in to provide the Sables with their transportation needs.

Coach, Piet Benade, received a Toyota Hilux while the duo of Chirengende, his assistant, and general manager TJ Chifokoyo received the Suzuki Jimny cars.

The company also availed their bus for the team, when they host internationals.

“I think for the Sables to be recognised and to partner with a big multinational company like CFAO Mobility, for me, that just shows how serious the corporate world is taking the team and Zimbabwe rugby at this stage,” said Chirengende.

“I think it is a huge achievement.

“When you partner up with big brands like this, it just shows how they see value in doing something with the Sables.

“And then, obviously, on the practical side, it’s also going to help us with our logistics.

“As coaches, we are able to then move around the country, move around to support, scout and monitor talent,” he said.

The Sables have been quietly going about their business with Chirengende overseeing the local-based players’ weekly training session.

And progress has been good.

“Yeah, so it’s been good, the boys have been hard at work training weekly for the past three months or so,” he said.

“Most of our preparations have been just to get our bodies ready for the season and international windows coming up.

“We understand that to cope where we are going is going to demand for us to do things differently, so we have ramped up our training schedule.

“The boys are training in the gym at least five times a week, which is obviously something that we haven’t done before.

“Now, we have decided to start fusing in some field sessions as well.”

Zimbabwe are in uncharted territory now, what with the World Cup slowly approaching.

Zimbabwe are due to make their debut appearance in an international rugby competition, the World Rugby Nations Cup.

The tournament is a second-tier rugby union competition designed for international men’s teams that qualified for the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

Zimbabwe are set to take on Canada, Chile, Samoa, Tonga, the United States of America and Uruguay during the July and November international windows.

Zimbabwe open their Nations Cup campaign with an all-important tie against Tonga on July 4.

They will then play the United States and Canada on July 11 and 18, to complete their summer window fixtures.

The matches against Tonga and the US will be played in the United States and they will then wrap the first round fixtures away in Canada.

All their home matches will be held in England with the Sables expected to host Uruguay, Samoa and Chile in November during the second window.

Chirengende, together with the rest of the Sables technical team, have now set about preparing the team for the busy schedule

The Zimbabwe Rugby union Interim Management Committee (IMC) is currently courting a host of the country’s regional and continental rivals in a bid to prepare the Sables for the Nations Cup.

Zimbabwe are looking to play Zambia and Botswana in April with the union aiming to give the locally-based players a good run.

Namibia and Kenya are then go expected to make to trip to Zimbabwe just before the team departs for the United States for their first assignment against Tonga.

“We looking to travel to give the locally-based players some game next month and we will then host a few local games against Zambia and Botswana, as we build up to July, which is a big month for us,” said Chirengende.

“Ideally, we would love to also play Kenya and Namibia, before the start of the Nations Cup and I hear we could also take on South Africa’s Under-20 side. We smiled when we saw that we were playing Tonga on the Nations Cup.

“We are kind of getting two bites of the cherry as we will play them in July and then again next year at the World Cup.

“This will give an idea of how they play, how we fare against them and what we get to see how they play.”