adminThis means that the Under-20 side will take on Russia in the seventh place play off at Murray Park Rugby Stadium on Saturday after both sides finished bottom and winless in their respective groups.
Having set themselves a target of a top six finish prior to the tournament, Brighton Chivandire’s boys needed nothing short of a win in this game if they were to realise their dream but in the end it remained just but a dream that never came true.
It was largely their defence that let them down at the critical stages of their game because scoring 36 points against Japan but losing by three and scoring 45 and losing by three converted tries shows the strength of the Young Sables attack.
“Our defence has not been up to scratch and it is one of the most crucial aspects of the game that has let us down largely because we missed tackles but as we all know tackling is not the only form of defence and I feel that we need a defence coach.
“We let the opposition run at us,” said Murambiwa.
After losing the first two games to Japan (36-39) and a humiliating 74-3 loss at the hands of Georgia, the Young Sables needed an outright win against Canada at Murray Rugby Park Stadium but they failed to get the win.
It was so sad that with just 11 minutes into the game, the Young Sables had already conceded five converted tries and were trailing 35-0.
Given their early capitulation, it was always going to be difficult to recover from such a deficit. But somehow, Zimbabwe found a reason to be confident to a certain extent and this was when they scored two converted tries reducing their arrears to 14-35.
It was still not good enough as the Canadians not only held on but added 31 more points to their tally for a comfortable victory.
Loose head prop Thabani Ndaba and hooker Andries Van Heerden gave Zimbabwe some reason to lift their heads up before slippery fullback Victor “Jackie” Mushoriwa added another five points for Zimbabwe as they tried to get back into the game.
Communication in defence looked poor, at mauls, rucks and scrums, the Southern Africans were always finding it difficult against the huge Canadians.
Zimbabwe needed to work as a team if they were to succeed but their forwards, especially, were not able to reorganise themselves in time and were slow in cutting down the opposition space while the tackling was not good enough.
The support for each other was not quick to come.
Murambiwa also reckoned that Zimbabwe had given Canada too much respect.
“There were a lot of junior players in this game and I am sure that they did not have self belief, they never thought that they had a chance to show what they are made of, they never thought they had a chance against Canada at all.
“It was not until they scored the first two tries without any response from Canada that they took control of the game for about 15 minutes when they saw they could do something. The fact that everyone looks bigger than them gives them a slow start to games,” said the former Sables coach.
Going into this game, Chivandire made seven changes with most of them in the forwards while three were made in the backline where winger Justin Coles and captain Sean Linfield were sidelined due to injuries.
Winger Joshua Broomberg, scrumhalf Robert Sergaent and fullback Mushoriwa came in the backline while forwards Daleroy Sibanda and lock Graham Logan were relegated to the bench but these changes did little to galvanise Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter