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Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
BAD blood between Mutare Sports Club and breakaway outfit, Old Crestonians could be one of the major reasons why Manicaland Select was humiliated 66-3 during the opening day of the Nedbank Challenge Cup in Harare last Saturday.
Manicaland Select’s performance was a bad advert to the standards of the game in the province after they succumbed to the morale sapping defeat at the hands of Harare Sports Club in a match played at OId Georgians Sports Club.
But the post mortem of that humiliating defeat opened a can of worms as some key stakeholders in the game believed that the deliberate sidelining of Mutare Sports Club players left the province being represented by a weak squad.
“There are also mixed feelings on the team selection, some saying or questioning why did MSC only had seven players and OC had 16 players from the team that played last weekend.
“Some are saying MSC should have dominated the squad since they were playing a lot of games lately and they are match fit than OC that only played one game last year,” said a local rugby enthusiast who declined to be named for fear of reprisal.
Since OC broke away from MSC, there has never been mutual understanding on the operations of the two clubs, with the later denying the former access to training facilities and other services needed in the day-to-day running of a club.
OC are using Chancellor Junior grounds for their training sessions.
However, Manicaland Select coach, Charles Bezuidenhout said his charges’ stage fright was their major undoing.
He also attributed his team’s heavy loss to poor defending.
“The problem was in our defence. We started working on it when we resumed training on Monday. The heavy defeat was also more to do with the psychological effects. Our guys were in awe from the first whistle. Perhaps it is all about the reputation and pedigree of our opponents.
“I do not think it has anything to do with the divisions between OC and MSC. After all, we only selected the best players from those who turned up for our training sessions,” said the Manicaland Select coach.
Others blamed last Saturday’s poor performance on the botched travelling arrangements.
Team manager, Casper ‘Belt’ Bandi, said: “The team was not good. Maybe it was the last minute travelling which cost us because the team left Mutare at 5.30am and arrived in Harare at 11.30am, 30 minutes before the match.”
However, Bezuidenhout expressed hope that his charges will perform better in the next round of matches in the tournament.
“We have two players who were not part of the squad because of minor injuries they were nursing. We are expecting them to be back in action. They will add value to the team. We just have to let the boys gel and get more time together. I hope we will be a much better team in our next assignment,” he said.
The four-week Nedbank Cup Challenge Cup signalled the end of the Covid-19 break on the game of rugby after a two-year hiatus.
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