admin
Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
IT has increasingly become very difficult to separate drama from the Zimbabwe Rugby Union, the latest chapter to their comedy being the Sables squad that was announced at the end of last week.
The squad has been branded as probably the worst World Cup qualifier squad ever to have been released by the ZRU.
In a statement, the ZRU said they were still awaiting clearance of five other players from their clubs.
“A further five players will be added to this squad, but the Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU) await to finalise the availability of players from their clubs.
“The squad will be reduced to a travelling team of 26 for the RWC qualifiers in Madagascar later in June,” the union said.
But this is very unconvincing and if the situation remains the same then it’s the end of the World Cup dream for Zimbabwe.
How the technical team and the selection panel, led by coach Brendan Dawson, came to announce a squad largely comprised of players they have not watched playing makes this selection process questionable.
It would have been better if most of these foreign-based players come to Zimbabwe and justified that they are better than the local breed of players who won Zimbabwe’s first Africa Cup since 1988.
For a side that is going to take on top-ranked side in Africa, Namibia, a tough Madagascar and a well-prepared Kenyan side, this is just but a circus that signals the end of a World Cup dream for the Sables.
Of course, experience in the form of Denford Mutamangira, Jacques Leitao, Fortune Chipendo and Njabulo Ndlovu is available up front in the forwards and the likes of Daniel Hondo, Gardner Nechironga, Tangai Nemadire and Daniel Robertson are in the backline.
However, this is not good enough given the calibre of players that have been included in the squad to support such experience.
But to believe that this is the best squad the Zimbabwe Rugby Union could come up with remains nothing short of another disastrous act by the rugby selectors, technical team and the rugby mother body.
The Ferreira brothers, Schalk and Jan, are struggling with their game, Tapiwa Mangezi has not been playing for a while and there is only one scrummy in the form of Hilton Mudariki.
That there are five wingers and only one capable centre shows that there is a serious technical flaw in the Sables camp as this has left the squad without balance or team chemistry.
That Dawson rarely watches the local league games has greatly contributed to the poor selection of the side as his judgment of home based-talent is impaired.
That a player like Old Hararians eighth-man Takunda Chifokoyo — who is arguably the best forward in the country at the moment — is not part of the project not only raises eyebrows for any National Rugby League follower but defies logic.
There are a lot of better locally based players compared to some of those that have been named in the Sables squad and one can only wonder how Dawson came up with such a squad.
Sables Squad
Forwards: F. Chipendu, J. Ferreira, S. Ferreira, L. Groenewald, P. Joubert, G. Lawler, J. Leitao, M. Mandioma, T. Mangezi, K. Murray, D. Mutamangira, R. Mwale, N. Ndlovu, K. Nqindi, M. Passaportis, A. Rose, S. Sibanda, N. Winwood.
Backs: T. Chitokwindo, D. Hondo, S. Hunduza, S. Makombe, T. Makwanya, H. Mudariki, G. Nechironga, T. Nemadire, R. O’Neill, D. Robertson, G. Sibanda, L. Tambwera.
Online Reporter