Superior Young Sables

yet another appearance at the Junior World Cup Trophy finals next year.
The Young Sables, playing in the Junior Africa Cup on home soil for the first time did not disappoints the appreciative crowd at Prince Edward School’s Jubilee Field as they powered to victory.

Zimbabwe could not have asked for anything better than defending their title at home in a tournament that they have won over the past two years.
The tournament also serves as the qualifier for the Junior World Rugby Trophy tournament and a win over Namibia ensured that the Young Sables qualified for the world tournament for the third time in a row.

Zimbabwe were on top of their game and they had very little defending to do in the better part of the first half taking a 21-5 lead at the end of the first period.
The Young Sables started the tournament on a low note, beating Uganda 16-8 in a sloppy game that was characterised by a lot of dropped balls, missed tackles and the forwards were slow to the rucks.

But as the tournament progressed, coach Brighton Chivandire’s teenagers found their rhythm and improved with each game.
If the Young Sables struggled with their game against Uganda, they were more precise against Tunisia when thumping the North Africans 34-0 in their second assignment. Although they got of to a slow start in the opening period against Tunisia, scoring just five points of a single try, the Young Sables turned on the magic in the second half.

In their first half against Tunisia it was their forward play which let the hosts down.
However, they went on to show their true potential in the second half where they scored 29 unanswered points as they started to spread the ball out wide – something they could have done earlier.
But the big test was always going to come in the final against old enemies Namibia.

Namibia were expecting to beat Zimbabwe on their home soil as both teams were unbeaten going in to the decider.
The Young Sables put up a highly impressive act to disappoint the Namibians for the third time in a row and claim the African title in front of their home crowd.

This time the forwards were quick to the rucks, they won a lot of possession off the line outs and they restricted the Namibia pack to very little attack as they starved them of the ball and Chivandire had all the reasons to be happy.
“We are satisfied with the way we played today because we did all that we were supposed to do and we won.
“Coming into this tournament we had set some goals for ourselves and we started well winning all our games from day one of the tournament.
“There was great support from everyone including the supporters, the organisers and we needed that for us to win. We struggled in the first game against Uganda because that was our first game as a team and we improved as we went on,” said Chivandire.

For the first 16 minutes of the game, Zimbabwe had a lot of possession but they were slow to settle as they were camped in the Namibia half but they could not break the opponent’s defence.
In trying to get the scoreboard ticking, Zimbabwe got two penalties but captain and centre Sean Linfield could not make use of the two kicks that could have given Zimbabwe the lead.

However, it was in the 11th minute that Zimbabwe changed the kicker and fullback James Forrester was thrown into the fray after Namibia came off an offside position from a maul and the fullback put Zimbabwe in the driving seat.

From then on Zimbabwe never took their feet off the pedal as they maintained the lead.
Namibia tried to come back and this time they managed to get into the Zimbabwe half, forcing a penalty but fullback and captain Daniel Bock put the chance to waste.

The Zimbabwe forwards were fired up for the better part of the game, Dalroy Sibanda and Joshua Smallbones never gave the Namibian front row of Desiderious Hannes and Christain van Wyk time to breath.

Man-of-the-match Bryant – who was latter stretched off the pitch – dazzled the crowd with his moves in the midfield, flanker Farai “Jigga” Jijita was dangerous with the ball while Tonderai Chigumbura, and the loose duo of Graham Logan, and Tapiwa Tsomondo proved a handful for Namibia.

The Zimbabwe back line was also too quick for Namibia.
Flyhalf Lenience Tambwera justified his inclusion in the side as he exhibited good ball distribution that resulted in Zimbabwe getting points including a try from Coles crossing from the right and the winger just had to outpace one defender and place in the Namibia in-goal

“This was a cup final and we had to step up and the boys understood what we were playing for,” added Chivandire.
Captain Linfield gave credit to his charges for making sure the cup remains in Harare despite the slow start to the week-long tournament.

“Against Uganda we have to understand that this was our first time playing as a team but I am happy that we were good enough to overcome them.
“But the game was really different today I am sure it is because the guys stuck to the game plan, we were in line with the set structure of play and we played more as a team.
“I was impressed with the way both the forwards and the back line played, of course Namibia had huge boys in the forwards and we took the chances that came our way,” said Linfield.

Namibia tried to stage a comeback and they fought from 21-5 at the beginning of the second half capitalising on a defensive error by the Zimbabwe midfield to score a converted try. Bryant was knocked out midway in the second half and this saw Mclean Muhambi moving from the wing to his traditional centre position while Denham Zimbudzana came in on the outside.