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ZIMBABWE’S dream at the rugby Sevens World Cup came to an end yesterday after they twice lost the lead to suffer a 17-26 defeat at the hands of Samoa in the Plate quarter finals in Moscow, Russia. This means the Cheetahs will return home empty handed after they suffered their second defeat at the hands of Samoa in the same tournament as they lost 14-21 in the opening game of the World Cup on Friday afternoon.
The first defeat came in the pool stages as the two sides were in Pool C but failed to finish among the best eight teams to progress to the Cup quarter finals and it was after the group games that the two were drawn to face each other in the knock out stage.
Zimbabwe finished third in the pool after defeats to fellow Africans Kenya and Samoa while they managed to overpower debutantes the Philippines but all this was spelling disaster for Zimbabwe who won the Bowl at the 2009 edition of the tournament.
Aiming to make it for the Cup quarters, Gilbert “Gidza” Nyamutsamba’s charges failed to reach their set target and but had a chance to redeem themselves in the second tier Plate competition where that fell at the first hurdle.
Zimbabwe took the lead with just 37 seconds played through forward Njabulo Ndlovu and Tangai Nemadire missed the kick to take a 5-0 lead but the Samoans came back with two successive tries in the later stages of the second half.
A double from Lolo Lui and Paul Perez’s conversions saw Samoa take a 14-5 lead going into the break and it took the heroics of Nemadire who converted his try early in the second half and second half substitute Wensely Mbanje also weighed in with a touch down but the kick at goal was not successful.
And at this stage the Cheetahs were leading 17-14 but – for the second time – could not hold on the lead and Samoa captain Afa Aiono came in to haunt the Zimbabwe defence with a Lui converted try and take a 21-19 lead.
It was in the last minute that offensive play from the Zimbabweans saw Samoa being awarded a penalty try and substitute Uale Mai added the bonus point to see his side progress to the Plate semi-finals.
On their way to the Plate quarters, Zimbabwe on Saturday started brightly with a convincing 19-7 win over the Philippines early in the morning’s play as they had to come from behind when Phillipines winger Oliver Saunders converted with less than 25 second into the game.
But the Cheetahs gathered themselves up and tries from Mbanje and Fortunate Chipendo were both converted by Nemadire to give Zimbabwe a 14-7 lead going into the break.
Tafadzwa Chitokwindo then completed the romp in the second half with an unconverted try, while Kilvan Magunje was sent to the sin-bin for unsportsman conduct in the last minute of the game but Zimbabwe had already bagged the game.
Kenya then destroyed Zimbabwe with tries from Biko Adema, Felix Ayange, Willy Ambaka, Oscar Ouma and Humphrey Kanyange, while they got a solitary conversion from Adema.
Chitokwindo gave Zimbabwe their conolation points from an unconverted touchdown.
Zimbabwe Team:
Fortunate Chipendu, Jacques Leitao (captain), Lucky Sithole, Njabulo Ndlovu, Garth Ziegler, Daniel Hondo, Tangai Nemadire, Gardner Nechironga, Wes Mbanje, Tafadzwa Chitokwindo, Mike Morris, Kilvan Magunje.
Points Scorers
Zimbabwe
Tries: Nemadire, Ndlovu, Mbanje
Conversions: Nemadire (one)
Samoa
Tries: Perez (two), Aiono (one),
Conversions: Lui (two), Mai (one).
Online Reporter