adminSports Reporter
THERE will be little rest for some of the Sables players who will have a short time to recover between their flight from South Africa and the game against Russia in the Hong Kong Cup of Nations rugby tournament this afternoon.
Wingers Tafadzwa Chitokwindo and Stephan Hunduza, Riaan O’Neill and Germany-based Manasah Sita were with the Cheetahs in South Africa over the weekend where they were featuring in the Olympic Games qualifier tournament, losing 19-21 to winners Kenya in the final.
And the trio of Chitokwindo, O’Neill and Sita have also been named in the Sables starting XV while Hunduza is also part of the match day 23 as he will be on the bench having left Johannesburg at 4pm local time yesterday.
The Sables face an uphill task when they take on Russia in their second game of the Hong Kong Cup of Nations this afternoon, just a day after they fell to their worst placing on this year’s World Rugby rankings.
“I certainly agree it’s going to be a tough encounter, after watching their first match against Portugal they showed that they are an aggressive and physical one dimensional team. we’ll have to front up to that,” said flank Biselele Tshamala.
Following their 30-11 defeat at the hands of Hong Kong on Friday in the same tournament, the Sables went three places down to 29, and will face Russia who went up one place up to 21 after beating Portugal in the same tournament.
The Durban-based versatile forward believes their game against Russia is all about having a strong mentality, putting the mistakes they made against Hong Kong behind and making sure execution is on point.
“That doesn’t cross our minds, as it’ll be a whole new ball game all together. We’ve worked hard at our practice sessions after our first loss to rectify all our faults.
“There are a number of changes that have been made to our side by the coaches, obviously these will make a difference and have an impact as we blood in a few more experienced players into the team,” said the former Young Sables eighth-man.
However, Tshamala knows the Russian Bears mean business and they are no easy pushovers as they are also tipped to walk away with the title given that they are the highest ranked side in the four-team competition.
This is the second time the two sides are playing each other in 15 months, Zimbabwe losing 15-23 last August in the World Cup qualifier play-off in Siberia.
The locking duo of Jan Ferreira and Sanele Sibanda, Chitokwindo and O’Neill all have experience against Russia as they were part of the Sables starting XV in Siberia last year while prop Farai Mudariki and Hunduza were on the bench.
But it is the self-belief culture that the Sables have invested in themselves that Tshamala believes will play a huge part if they are to come out with a positive result at the end of the 80 minutes.
“We’ve to trust our structures against them and we stand a huge chance to overcome them. It’s a different cup all together so I wouldn’t really say it is payback time,” he said.
Teams
Zimbabwe 1-15: Denford Mutamangira (captain), Nico Nyemba, Farai Mudariki, Sanele Sibanda, Jan Ferreira, Alva Senderai, Biselele Tshamala, Andrew Rose, Charles Jiji, Tich Makwanya, Manasah Sita, Riaan O’Neill, Gerald Sibanda, Tafadzwa Chitokwindo, Lungile Tshuma.
Reserves: Brian Makamura, Royal Mwale, Tatenda Murwira, Gabriel Spapati, David Kapuya, Ngoni Chibuwe, Stephan Hunduza, Kazembe, Tafadzwa Mhende.
Russia 1-15: Alexey Volkov, Yevgeny Matveyev, Azamat Bitiev, Andrey Garbuzov, Denis Antonov, Alexander Khudyakov, Daniel Chegodaev, Viktor Gres, Rushan Yagudin, Sergei Yanyushkin, Andrew Otrokov, Alex Makovetskii, Igor Galinovsky, Nikita Ilienko, Vasily Artemyev (captain).
Substitutes: Alexander Ivanov, Sergei Sekisov. Vladimir undercut, Tahir Hajiyev, Anton Sychev, Vasily Dorofeev, Denis Kukishev, Andrew Lizogub.
Online Reporter