Turmoil in Sables camp

While coach Brandon Dawson indicated that he was happy with his charges it seems the reverse is true for the players who accuse the coach of selective treatment, bias on selection and lack of communication within the structures.

“Surely we are not happy with the way coach (Brandon Dawson) conducts himself in front of us and he even treats the assistant coach (Cyprian “Supa” Mandenge) as if he is one of the junior players.

“He rarely communicates with him (Mandege) especially when he is not around for the training sessions and he (Dawson) even prefers to call players and give them instructions on which drill to conduct.

“Honestly what picture then does this give to us as players when someone who is supposed to be our role model and leader treats his assistant in that way, it becomes tough for us.

“Were it not for the fear of victimisation, we would have allowed you to publish our names. The Sables system is such that if you say the truth you get punished hence our reluctance to have our names published.

“This is the reason why Cleopas Makotose was called into camp and not picked the last time and if such conduct continues we are definitely not going to qualify for the 2015 World Cup in England,” said one of the players.

In fact, the battle seems to have been going for a long time now but the bubble finally burst this week when players indicated that they were not happy with the leadership qualities of Dawson.

Prior to the Sables tour of Namibia while Dawson was in Bulawayo, assistant coach Cyprian “Supa” Mandenge was available but Dawson opted for Old Hararians second string Metro League side coach Dallas Kozorera.

“This is a national team that we are talking of and how could we be taken for a training session by a coach who does not have a rugby reputation even in the lower league? There are better coaches in the National Rugby League.

“Nsikelelo Sibanda won the league with Sports Club but he was never called, Grant Mitchell finished in the top four with Old Georgians together with Max Madziva of Old Hararians.

“Even in the build up to the tour of Namibia we were surprised that Dawson was actually instructing Keith Murray to take us for some drills.

“This makes us feel that Dawson does not know what he is supposed to be doing as coach because a player he is supposed to be coaching is doing his job.

“At times he does not travel with the side for reasons that are not clear to us,” said one forward.

Murray earned his first Sables cap in the Dubai tour and this was his first time training with the Sables but this is not the first time that such reports have come out as lock Jan Ferreira was last year instructed to conduct drills.

A few weeks ago ZRU president John Falkenberg told our sister paper The Herald that he was not happy with the events in the Sables camp, as there is lack of commitment and over the past year Dawson has only been to three of the five tournaments the Sables played.

Dawson did not travel with the Sables for the Africa Cup group 1B tournament in Uganda but he took part in the next two tournaments namely the Victoria Cup last year and the Africa Cup this year.

He however, failed to travel to Namibia and Mandenge had to again take charge of the Sables before Dawson joined camp for the United Arab Emirates invitational tournament.

But players have also questioned the selection criterion used by the Sables gaffer.

“It’s a known fact that Dawson does not watch the local league games, he does not travel to Harare to watch the league games yet it is where most of the teams are based. How then does he get to know the players?

“There are a lot of talented players here that we can rely on and those who travelled to Namibia did a much better job than some of the guys who joined us for Dubai.

“To us it becomes apparent that some of the players we hand picked because form and fitness are not considered.

“In Dubai and some of the players that were called for the tournament did not have any national team experience but they flew to Dubai straight without training with us.

“And how were we supposed to learn each other’s play in such a short space of time,” added one of the senior players.

A few months ago Dawson through ZRU was presented with a vehicle by Toyota Zimbabwe that he was supposed to use to travel round the country to identify talent but the programme is yet to start.