Zimbabwe conquer USA at Under-20 Rugby trophy

Grace Chingoma, Senior Sports Reporter

THE Zimbabwe Junior Sables coach Shaun De Souza was over the moon following his team’s memorable 38-37 victory over the United States of America in a pulsating Group A encounter of the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy at Nyayo Stadium in Kenya yesterday.

The come-from-behind victory, although close, was a big moment for celebrations for the Zimbabwean, especially considering the calibre of the opponents.

The victory also meant Zimbabwe are now guaranteed their best ever finish in the second-tier competition – a fifth or sixth place. Their previous best was position eighth.

The Zimbabwean team will meet Kenya in the fifth playoff tie on Sunday which looks more like a repeat of the Barthes Trophy final played between the two teams recently, at the same venue, with the Junior Sables dominant.

Kenya beat Hong Kong 22-16 to secure the date. Hong Kong will play the USA in the seventh place playoff.

But De Souza was excited that after defeats to Scotland and Uruguay in the opening two pool games, his charges managed to beat the USA for the first time in their history.

“So we are excited that the plan came together and we have a win under our belt. We have never won against the USA, it’s a brilliant win for Zimbabwe. A third-world country beating a first-world country, what a feeling for the boys.

“I think the boys are so excited and we will take it from there. We will go to the next step which is the fifth-place playoff (against hosts Kenya) on Sunday.

“We go to the drawing board. It will be exciting if it’s Kenya. They have improved a lot since the Barthes in April so it will be a good way to finish this tournament,” said De Souza.

The Junior Sables have competed in the Under-20 Trophy four times between 2011 and 2016 when they finished eighth.

Going into this tournament, Zimbabwe had targeted a top-four finish but things did not go according to plan after losing the opening two matches to Scotland and Uruguay.

The Junior Sables yesterday had to come from behind to beat the United States. Shadreck Mandaza secured the victory with a brilliant try which he converted.

Zimbabwe started off on the backfoot and were trailing 37-26 with about 10 minutes remaining on the clock.

The Junior Sables replacements Mandaza and Brendan Marume produced two tries in those final moments of the game to tip the game in favour of the Junior Sables.

USA had raced to a 14-0 lead, with tries from Hayden Mckay and John Wilson. It seemed Zimbabwe’s indiscipline, which has been a huge concern at this tournament, was going to cost them a match again.

But a penalty from fly-half Benoni Nhekairo got them on the scoreboard just after the 20th-minute mark. The Junior Sables immediately got a superb try from a sweeping attack at halfway which was started by Simbarashe Kanyangarara and finished by the scrum half.

Nhekairo added a straightforward conversion followed by two penalties which nudged the Junior Sables into the lead for the first time.

Nhekairo struck again eight minutes into the second half but, having played with great composure, things unravelled for Zimbabwe in the space of eight minutes with a series of errors that allowed USA to regain the lead.

However, Zimbabwe backed by their colourful supporters from the stands managed to finish strongly with vice-captain Dion Khumalo unleashing Marume for his second try and Mandaza’s pace then slicing open the defence for the decisive try.

Zimbabwe coach De Souza believes the changes he made to the starting team also paid dividends.

“We definitely excited for the win. Will take the win, one point coming from behind most of the second half. The plan was with the wholesome changes that we made in the starting line-up, there was a plan to that.

“I needed to get the fringe players who hadn’t played any games at the tournament to get a run and give it their all in the first 40 minutes and just keep the scoreboard ticking. Today, we played a different style of game,” said De Souza.

Despite trailing the Americans for the most parts of the game, the Zimbabwe coach believes they worked on their grey areas, which meant sharpening their arsenal at the front.

“The plan was to play a test match in the first half and then open it up in the second half. Unfortunately, we just lost a bit of momentum when the USA started putting points on the board.

“But we then composed ourselves and got the bomb squad on. I actually wanted to put the bomb squad in earlier but I just had to compose, just settle the nerves because we were on the back foot and then the bomb squad came and did what we had planned,” he said.