adminFive national teams took part in the second edition of the event that ended on Sunday at Harare Sports Club, and the South Africa Elite Developmental side emerged winners following a rather one-sided affair in the Cup final where they beat Leopards 42-0.
Zimbabwe, Hong Kong, Kenya, Zambia and Georgia were the five national sides that took part in the tournament where seven provincial and developmental sides from South Africa and Zimbabwe also weighed in.
However, the Cheetahs failed to defend their title after losing 5-12 to the South Africa development side but visiting coach said the Gilbert “Gidza” Nyamutsamba-coached Zimbabwe side don’t need to bury their heads in the sand.
“Winning this tournament for us was a bonus because we were all about giving exposure to our players but I must say that my boys are happy after wining against the defending champions on their way to lifting the title,” said Treu.
“Zimbabwe gave us good competition and the good thing, as well, about this tournament is that there were a number of national sides that are going to compete at the Hong Kong leg of the IRB World Series in two weeks time.
“Given that, Zimbabwe are one of those teams and I believe that losing to us in the semi-final should be a wake-up call to them.
“It is from such games and defeats that we should learn and see where we are going wrong in order to avoid those mistakes at the more important stage.”
Zimbabwe had started their title defence on the right footing with two wins on the opening day of the tournament where they topped Pool A – 40-0 over Zambia and 27-7 over Georgia.
At the same time the Blitsbokke developmental side were also setting up base for their title win as they also won all their group games with wins over Blue Bulls Academy (45-0) and Leopards (26-21) earning them a quarter final berth against the Goshwaks.
It was too steep a mountain to climb for the Goshawks who lost 7-33 before winning the Bowl 19-12 against last year’s runners-up Buffaloes.
The Buffaloes were a disappointing lot this year given that they gave the Cheetahs a tough time in last year’s edition.
Farai “Jigga” Jijita, scored a brace of tries in the Bowl final, Tonderai Chigumbura (one) and Kuda Chiwanza had a big role to play in the tries.
Nyamutsamba conceded his side failed to reach their target.
“We obviously wanted to win it again but being the defending champions is tough because you have every one of the teams against you,” said Nyamutsamba.
“However, we drew some positives from the tournament because we managed to get game time for the boys, it gave us good insight on who and what to work on going into Hong Kong.
“Remember we still have the likes of Wes Mbanje, who we rested for this tournament, and Garth Zieglar, among others, whom we will have to look at this week once the boys re-group and fitness will be priority.”
Cheetahs veteran forward, Fortunate Chipendu, was out-of-sorts, especially in the knock out stages on day two, letting the side down on several occasions, Njabulo Ndlovu had his ups and downs while young Stephan “Stavo” Hunduza got a memorable debut, scoring as well.
The absence of Mbanje left a lot of responsibility on winger Tafadzwa Chitokwindo but the South Africa-based gasman did not disappoint given the support of playmaker Daniel Hondo, the hard-tackling captain Jacques Leitao and Tangai Nemadire.
Hong Kong coach, Dai Rees, said his side will be back for next year’s edition.
“This was a wonderful tournament and I see a lot of potential in terms of growth for it because if Zimbabwe can manage to draw so many national teams with the tournament only in its second year then the future looks good.
“I hope that the Zimbabwe Rugby Union will be able to maintain this event, especially at this time of the year, because more teams will be able to take part as it is during the long six-week break between the Las Vegas and Hong Kong tournaments.
“I am happy for my boys as well because they have managed to get some quality time out here, it was a quality tournament with good competition especially for us who are aiming to make it as core World Sevens members,” said Rees.
On the organisational and logistical side, the tournament went well but the low side were the high gate charges that were pegged at US$5, on a rainy weekend, and it told on the crowd at Sports Club.
The organisers of the tournament also made a mistake on the draw where Pool A winners were fixtured against Pool B winners whereas Pool A winners are supposed to play Pool D winners to avoid top seeds meeting in the early stages — according to the standard worldwide.
But this did not have a big negative impact on the quality of rugby that was on display and hopes are high next year’s edition will be bigger and better.
Online Reporter