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Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
ZIMBABWE Academy coach Brendon Dawson has acknowledged his charges got a rude awakening to life in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge.
They fell apart in the second half to succumb to a 41-16 defeat by Border Bulldogs at the Buffalo City Municipality Stadium in East London, South Africa, on Sunday.
The academy side are making their debut in the competition as part of the Zimbabwe Rugby Union’s plan to rebuild the senior team — the Sables — in preparation for the 2023 World Cup which Aaron Jani’s leadership have made their top priority.
But after the Sables under Peter de Villiers struggled in the Rugby Africa Gold Cup last year, tottering on the brink of relegation into the Silver Cup, the Zimbabweans got a reality check of how much they have fallen behind in the international game.
Yet the academy had looked to be strong enough to withstand the heat when they narrowly trailed 19-16 at the break.
But Border posted 22 unanswered points in the second period as the gulf in strength between the sides became more pronounced.
Dawson noted that his charges had never experienced the kind pace or physical demands which the SuperSport Challenge presents.
“They had never experienced this in their lives, they had never experienced the pace of the game or the physical contact of it because in our country our rugby is not of that standard,’’ he told SuperSport.
“So, it’s a massive learning curve for them and it’s a massive learning curve for us as coaches.
“We all learnt a tremendous amount today and as I keep saying to everyone, we’re building for the World Cup qualifiers in a year or two’s time.
“By then, we hope to have a good core of players of about 20 to 23 years of age who have played at the top level.’’
Dawson said his side has an average age of between 22 and 23.
“Some coaches use development and growth as an excuse, we’re definitely going for growth and development within our system,’’ he said.
“We’ve got a lot of youngsters within our system, the flyhalf that played at the end there was 20, our tighthead is 20, a lot of our guys are around 19, 20, 21 and 22.
“So we had a helluva young group out there’’.
As a result, there is plenty of homework for the academy side as they head back to their base at False Bay Rugby Club in Cape Town:
“The turnover count must have been horrific, we gave ball away. Our accuracy at breakdowns and what we’re trying to achieve wasn’t great.
“And speed to the ball and speed to get into position to receive the ball was lacking.
“We’ve got to go back and work at those things because our next game is the (Cell C) Sharks (XV). We’ve also got a lot of knocks from this game,’’ Dawson said.
Online Reporter