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The side started their preparations for the 2013 season with a Sevens’ training session at Old Georgians Sports Club yesterday evening.
The Dragons have been topping the Sevens Series for the past four years after taking over the dominance from former champions and rivals Harare Sports Club who ruled the shorter version of the game for over five years.
While the Dragons won the Sevens title last year, they were not able to defend their championship in the longer version of the game where they finished as semi-finalists before Sports Club claimed the big prize.
And, as has become tradition on the local rugby calendar, the season will kick off with the Spar Sevens Series next month and the Spar International before attention shifts to the XVs version.
But Mitchell feels his side have to work hard both on and off the field if they are to get favourable results and retain their title as the Sevens gurus for the 2013 season.
“Every season is taken seriously and that won’t change. The team culture lays the foundation for this approach and this is instilled through the leadership.
“Defending a title is so much harder and we need to be smarter than we were in 2012 both in preparation and in performance.”
The former Cheetahs player gave credit to XVs champions Harare Sports Club who managed to grab the title from Old Georgians who had won the crown for two years in a row.
“(Sports Club captain) Danny Hondo and Harare Sports Club are worthy champions and we look forward to our continued on-field rivalry.
“There has been a significant improvement in the seasonal planning process to create a more defined pathway for the rugby clubs (Old Georgians) performance and the teams’ performances.
“The approach to XVs and Sevens carry components of each other but differ to some extent on the technical, selection and conditioning fronts.
“These will be focus areas for each format of the game,” added Mitchell.
He said there were no changes to his technical team because they want to see continuity.
“There are no changes to the technical team. Progress was made in 2012 and continuity and progression are key to our survival and success.
“There may be some additions though.
“As for the players we have Itayi Vambe who joined us at the end of 2012 and is a huge asset for the Sevens’ set-up.
“Boyd Rous will be returning from the UK and will be based in Harare for the season. Boyd debuted in the 2012 November Spar 7s and is also a talented XVs backline player.
“In addition to this we are expecting a number of recently graduated University students. These recruits can only be confirmed at a later stage.”
Old Georgians used to have a second string side like Harare Sports Club and Old Hararians, who have their feeder teams playing in the lower Metro League, and Mitchell said there were a number of factors to consider if they are to field two teams this season.
“If the numbers are high we would consider registering the second side.
“The biggest challenge is sustaining two teams over a full season and in particular having at least twelve front row forwards available for selection due to the laws of the game.
“Not injured, readily available, well conditioned front row forwards are hard to come by in Zimbabwe for 10 months of the year.”
The laws of the game indicate that each teams should have three front rowers on the field while the other three sit on the bench as substitutes and this could mean between nine to 12 front rowers for Old Georgians.
According to Mitchell, finishing third last year in the league, after beating Old Hararians in the third — place play-off, means they have a number of areas to work on as they failed to reach their set goal of retaining the title.
“Finishing third was not our goal but retaining the title was. In hindsight it did highlight areas of weakness and provided motivation for the club to improve on 2012.
Online Reporter
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