adminGrace Chingoma
Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S Junior Sables are wary of their semi-final opponents Tunisia at the Barthes Trophy rugby tournament which is underway in Nairobi, Kenya.
The defending champions got off to a good start when they thrashed Cote d’Ivoire 55-0 in the quarter-final match on Saturday.
But the Zimbabwe national Under-20 team coach Shaun De Souza is fully aware of the threat posed tomorrow in the semi-finals by the Tunisians, who are ranked higher than the Ivorians.
“We are looking forward to the semi-final. It is a knock-out stage. We definitely want to take ourselves to the next level.
“It will be a difficult game but we are not going to take it sitting down. We have put in a gym session this morning (yesterday) and we did a field session straight after and we have another field session this afternoon (yesterday) just to fine-tune areas of concern and perfect certain aspects of the game,” said De Souza.
Last year the Junior Sables beat Tunisia in a tightly-contested duel. The Tunisians booked their semi-final berth against Zimbabwe after beating Madagascar in a difficult weather conditions.
“Yes, Tunisia had a big score against the Madagascar team but we are yet to see what they can do without the rainy weather.
“They played under rain, so I don’t think we have seen the best of Tunisia yet. But I am sure they will come guns blazing as they are the team we beat in the last minute last year when we played them. I am sure they have a bone to pick with us and a score to settle,” De Souza said.
The Junior Sables technical team will make some changes to the team that raced to a 31-lead at the break against Cote d’Ivoire with tries from Allan Mawunga, Tanaka Ndoro, Muzuva Gutu, Simbarashe Kanyangarara, Dion Khumalo, Benoni Nhekairo, Shadrick Mandaza and a brace from Alex Nyamuda. Vice-captain Brendan Murume had five conversions.
“There will be changes but I will decide the changes this evening (last night) after the assessments of the two training sessions and also the assessment from the medical side. The physiotherapist is assessing those that had slight niggles,” said De Souza.
De Souza says Zimbabwe are the team to watch at the tournament where they also received good feedback from the referee’s panel regarding discipline after their first game.
“The first game went well. Not everything went to plan but we did just put in a big score.
“Even that being said, we still have areas of concern. We did our video reviews, and we had a referee’s review. The reference from the referees’ point of view in terms of discipline and the general tournament assessment. It went well, it was positive on our side. We seem to be the team that was doing things to the referee’s agreed standard.
“We are excited about that so going into the next round we will be the team to watch again,” said De Souza.
Junior Sables Squad
Forwards: Happias Zhou, Gary Zisengwe, Stanley Muranganwa, Vincent Chimwendo, Muzuva Gutu, Halger Muchenje, Tadiwa Chinwada, Gealan Jaricha, Tanaka GondoMukandapi, Huntley Masterson, Tawanyasha Bwanya, Ngobile Manyara, Bryan Chiang, allan Mawunga, Leo Mutendi, Tanaka Ndoro.
Backs: Panashe Zuze, Brendan Marume, Dion Khumalo, Brendan Jameson, Shadrick Mandaza, Benoni Nhekairo, Tanaka Chinyanga, Panashe Mugorogodi, Simbarashe Kanyangarara, Alex Nyamunda, Edward Sigauke, Taonaishe Mapani.
Online Reporter