We could have done better: Mandenge

Sports Reporter
SABLES’ coach Cyprian “Supa” Mandenge believes his side could have done better at the Hong Kong Cup of Nations had they gone into the camp and received enough conditioning ahead of their week-long tour where they lost all three games.

“That is why we need to camp, that is why we need condition. Not camping had a huge (negative) impact on how we played in Hong Kong because we would have had all the time to prepare and get used to each other’s play.

“Of course, conditioning is letting us down and we can’t keep crying over that. As players we need to act accordingly and find ways of keeping fit because sometimes we need to sacrifice and that is the challenge I have given to the players.

“We need to be objective, we need to have the players on time, we have the human resources here, people who can spare their time for the Sables, people like John Ewing can work with the midfield, Doug Trivella and Elimon “Bedford” Chimbima can work on the back three and forwards but that is not possible if we don’t get into camp. A good example is that all the games we went into camp for we have won and all the games and tournaments we played without going into camp were negative and that just is the power of going into camp,’’ Mandenge said.

Despite suffering three straight defeats in the four-team rugby competition, Mandenge says his charges are in the right direction as they proved that they have a lot of technical and tactical awareness that, however, lacked conditioning.