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THE Junior World Rugby Trophy climaxes today with the Young Sables getting one last chance at redemption when they face Hong Kong in a seventh place play off at Harare Sports Club.
The match kicks off at 2 pm and is part of a packed programme whose highlight is the championship final between Spain and Samoa.
Three defeats in three matches have left the Young Sables technical unit clutching at straws in their attempts to come up with a plausible explanation for the team’s dismal performance.
“Schoolboy errors have been our greatest undoing,” said assistant coach Bob Mahari.
“The challenge, I think, is we haven’t been to a world tournament in about four or five years and now we are at home and in front of these big crowds.
“A lot of these kids are still in high school, which is a different level in itself, and a combination of these two makes for a lot of pressure.
“The silly schoolboy errors like the inability to drop kick properly; the inability to pass or catch can all be traced to the pressure.
“If you ask top athletes, from anywhere around the world the difference between them and the rest of the world, they will tell you its mental aptitude and the ability to focus in pressure situations,” he said.
Commenting on today’s clash, Mahari said Zimbabwe are ready to seal off the tournaments with their best performance.
“We have to play hard and apply ourselves more,” he said.
“We are playing against a tough opposition and in front of our home crowd and so we don’t want to be last and disappoint them.
“We have already lost out on our initial goal of a top five finish, and we are very disappointed about that, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road for us.
“We have more rugby to play, we are yet to play to the best of our ability. We simply have to get better.”
A full day’s worth of rugby is expected, as the Junior World Rugby Trophy rounds up proceedings.
Hosts Zimbabwe and Hong Kong square off in the seventh place play-off, while debutants Uruguay and the United States of America meet in the fifth place play-off.
In the finals; Fiji and Namibia battle for the bronze medal, while the biggest clash of the day will be the final which pits favorites Samoa against the surprise team of the tournament Spain.
The winner of the Samoa and Spain will get automatic promotion to the highly competitive IRB Junior World Rugby Championship.
While Samoa have been dominant coming out of the highly competitive group A, Spain have been the more entertaining team of the two.
Both teams go into today’s clash unbeaten, after Samoa easily dispatched Zimbabwe (54-24), Fiji (38-8) and Uruguay (55-22), while Spain made light work of Hong Kong (44-8), Namibia (40-22) and USA (18-16).
Fixtures
USA v Uruguay (10am)
Fiji v Namibia (12pm)
Zimbabwe v Hong Kong (2pm)
Samoa v Spain (4pm)
Online Reporter