adminMbachi Mutukula-Maregere Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Under-18 team manager Tungamirai Mashungu says his side needs to work on a number of areas to get a positive result at the Craven Week Rugby Festival in South Africa.
The team had their first day session yesterday at Gateway High School in Harare,
“We did our monitoring and noticed that a lot has to been done for us to get the guys to the level we want them to play during the festival.
“We want to change a lot of things.
“We are very concerned with one to two aspects of what we have seen in the boys’ play.
“There are some few gaps that we need to work and improve on,” said Mashungu.
He said they have a week to get everything in order.
“Basically, we have seven days if you add them together. But these guys are playing at their schools as well.
“What we have been doing is that we have been attending the school matches going and monitoring their progress,” Mashungu said.
Yesterday, the Under-18s started their business working on force training, ball skills and fitness. “On day two, we will start looking at game plan and skills and just trying to get the team together and as well as showing the right pattern that we want to play,” said Mashungu.
“The is a lot of enthusiasm.
“We still feel that the intensity is low, they are still playing like they are playing for the school but we want them to play at the national level.”
Meanwhile, after a week’s break, it’s back to business in the National Rugby League today at ZB Sports Club.
With Harare Sports Club on top of the log standings and Southern City of Chitungwiza at the basement, the rugby players said they were looking forward to an exciting afternoon.
Sports Club captain Shingi Mpofu says they were looking forward to their match against Old Johannians.
“We had two days of training this week and we worked on our weakness, our line-outs as well as our rucking skills and we have a target that we must improve on that.
“OJs are not a bad team and so we must not relax, they can beat us although we had good results in our earlier fixtures,” said Mpofu.
Mpofu said the players will be travelling to Zambia for a tournament.
“Our league games tomorrow (today) must be taken seriously and it should be in preparation for our tour to Zambia,” said Mpofu.
In another match Old Georgians take on Harare Sports Club II.
Zimbabwe Under-18 Craven Week Squad
Akim Sibanda, Brian Mutanga, Samuel Garnett, Levi Fargnoli, Tinashe Muchena, Stuart Marriott-Dodington, John Burnett, Ross Zeederburg, Campbell Nyakudya, Benjamin Meredith, Tinotenda Vheriwa, Francis Angus Bruce, Jordan Zietsman, Sam Phiri, Tarisai Mapfumo, Cameron Harrison, Cleopas Kundiona, Kelvin Chisango, Liam Kenny, Ernest Mudzengerere, Russell Dinha, Shingirai Katsvere, Graham Kaulback.
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