Sables finally beat Namibia to reach Africa Cup final

AT the 80th minute buzzer, head coach, Piet Benade took a huge sigh of relief.

He had achieved a feat that no other Zimbabwe senior men’s national rugby team coach ever had in over 20 years.
His Sables team notched up a famous win over old foes Namibia to advance to the finals of the 2024 Rugby Africa Cup in Kampala, Uganda.

Zimbabwe convincingly beat Namibia 32-10 in the semi-final on Wednesday afternoon, their first win over the Welwitschias in 23 years.

The last time the Sables beat Namibia was in 2001 where they registered a hard fought 27-26 victory. It was in Bulawayo in July of that year that they had last recorded victory over Namibia.

Zimbabwe went to the half time break with a convincing 14-3 lead before coming back to score 18 more points in the second stanza while the Welwitschias only scored seven. They scored four tries with three of them coming in the second half.

After the break, Tapiwa Mafura scored the first try of the second half, making it 19-3 to Benade’s men before Brandon Mudzekenyedzi went on to extend the lead to 26-3.

With the Sables enjoying a comfortable lead, Takudzwa Musingwini added three more points to make it 29-3.
Flyhalf, Ian Prior – in just his second game in green and white – was adding more points from the kicking tee. Team skipper, Hilton Mudariki could not believe what transpired in the Ugandan capital.

“I’m at a loss of words. The amount of work, the amount of graft, I’m so happy for the guys,” said Mudariki in his post-match interview.

Zimbabwe will face Algeria in the final on Sunday. Algeria beat Kenya 20-12.
The victory was a sweet one for all rugby stakeholders in the country and renowned coach, Ruben Kumpasa who has been in charge of Zimbabwe Under-14s (among other various national age groups) and Matabeleland Warriors head of technical, said yesterday’s victory is testament to the right direction that sport in the country is headed towards.

Kumpasa said all that has to be done now is to make sure that the team books its place at the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia. For him, the best way to do that is to make sure that the Sables get as much game time as they possibly can.

“It’s a very good thing to have finally beaten Namibia. It’s a very good win, we are so proud of this team. It shows that we have what it takes to play the big boys and beat them. We need to be consistent in our bid to try and qualify for the World Cup. We have a good team with exciting talent, we just need to play more Test matches. If we could get the likes of Spain, Portugal and even Italy, it will show what kind of level we need to be at going into the final qualifiers,” said Kumpasa.

What made the victory even more special was the fact that Namibia were the defending champions and the rivalry between the two teams dates back to 1999 when Namibia took over from Zimbabwe as Africa’s representative at the World Cup (from the African qualifiers, joining South Africa who have automatic entry).

The Sables had been the first African team at the first World Cup tournaments in 1987 and 1991 before Namibia overtook them.

The 2024 Africa Cup serves as the first stage towards qualification for Australia 2027. The final qualification tournament is pencilled in for next year where only one of this year’s finalists will be able to book their ticket to the global showpiece.

Sunday’s final is scheduled for 4pm.—@brandon_malvin