Young Sables captain apologises

Paul Munyuki in NELSPRIUT, South Africa
YOUNG Sables captain, Alva Senderai, has apologised for his side’s poor performance against Kenya here on Tuesday as the Zimbabwe Under-19 rugby side crashed out of the Junior World Rugby Trophy qualifier tournament.
Zimbabwe needed to win against the East Africans if they were to entertain any hopes of making it for the annual JWRT but a defeat to Kenya means that they now have to take on Madagascar in the third place play-off. The loser of this game will also be relegated to Group 1B and will not have a chance to fight for the Junior Africa Cup title and the JWRT ticket next year — a result that coach Nsikelelo “Sykes” Sibanda and his charges would not want to entertain.
“I am really sorry that we let everyone down. We did not perform as (well) as we should have done, it was quite unexpected that we lost to Kenya,” said the Young Sables’ eighth-man. “But I guess we have to look forward and focus on our next game against Madagascar on Saturday (tomorrow).”
Senderai said they had no excuse to lose in the way they did, as they had prepared well, acknowledging that they lost their structure during the game, especially after taking a 10-point lead.
Zimbabwe started on the back foot trailing 0-10 after 13 minutes, they picked themselves up as they scored four unconverted tries before Kenya got their act together to score 19 more points and register a 29-20 win that powered them into the final against Namibia.
“Going into the game we were well prepared but somehow everything just fell apart. We had the confidence when we went into the break leading (15-10) and we had another try early in the second and all we wanted was just to extend the lead.
“We got too excited of the lead we had taken but somehow we lost structure and our defence just let us down and that was the turning point of the game.
“Our kicking was not good but I guess we are all humans and we are bound to make mistakes,” said Senderai. Yesterday Zimbabwe had two training sessions, one in the morning and another in the afternoon, and Senderai said everything was taking shape as they prepare to battle Madagascar at the Mbombela Stadium tomorrow. As a team we are all not happy about our performance on Tuesday but we are getting into the right mood for the game against Madagascar, the guys are positive and we have to play and win. We had a chance to watch Madagascar play and we noticed they are fast and they move the ball a lot so we have to starve them of the ball if we are to avoid relegation.”
Kenya coach Paul Murunga believes his side was more dedicated and better prepared for their showdown against Zimbabwe.
“We were leading, of course, but I was very worried because I know Zimbabwe can play the game well down to the last minute and it was sad that my boys relaxed when they took that 10-point lead and allowed Zimbabwe back into the game,” said Murunga.
“That is what happens when you get relaxed and complacent but they managed to put up a good fight in the second half and scored 19 points and make it into the final on Saturday. I was not happy with the below average performance by our kickers, who missed a lot of kicks.”