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Despite a 13-10 win over Kenya in their defence of the title, the Young Sables were not a unit and struggled to gel and bring structure to their game as they did not get enough game time in the build-up to the tournament.
However, it was a bright day for Zimbabwe whose B side who were fielded in the competition after replacing withdrawn Uganda, came up with a 27-14 win over Zambia.
But most of the attention was on the Young Sables who are aiming to make it their fourth title in a row and their biggest threat Namibia put up a very strong display to thrash Tunisia 44-7 in another Pool A game.
This means that the Young Sables are second on the Pool A standings behind Namibia but the Young Sables take on wounded Tunisia in their next game on Wednesday at the same venue and a win would be the only acceptable result.
Chivandire, however believes his boys are going to improve for the next game as they have watched their opponents play and have some days to prepare for the next encounter.
“Kenya were out to play and they capitalised on our mistakes but I am sure we will be a more improved side as we have a number of days to prepare for our next game .
“I was not impressed with the way we played but the good thing is that at the end of the day we managed to come out with a win which, I believe, will serve as a moral booster and confidence giver to the side.
“As always the first game is the most difficult and you cannot really tell how the opponents play, all the teams will definitely improve with the next game because they would also have watched their next rivals playing,” said Chivandire.
The former Sables coach was, however, impressed with how the Harare select side fared, given that they only had three days to prepare for the tournament after Uganda pulled out due to financial constraints.
“I am very impressed with the way the select side played because they had very little time to prepare for the games and they went on to win their encounter with a quite comfortable margin.
“The good thing about this side is that it is more of preparing Zimbabwe’s future Sables especially in the two-year range to come and we need to play as many young players and expose them to international games,” added Chivandire.
While Chivandire was not happy with the way his boys played against Kenya, his counterpart Paul Murunga said he was actually surprised with the way his charges took the game despite going down to the hosts.
“It was too close but unfortunately at the end of the game there only is one winner but the boys played above what I expected despite us making a lot of mistakes that came because of lapses in concentration and poor defence in the second half”.
Online Reporter