Zimbabwe rugby nosedives again

on home advantage and secure their place at the Junior Ruby World Cup finals in Chile next year.
Instead, the hosts suffered a 44-23 loss at the hands of Namibia in a week in which they flattered to deceive.
Their demolition job on Tunisia in their penultimate game had seemed to suggest that nothing could stop the Young Sables machine in its wake.
Chivandire admitted that their slow start to the game had made it difficult for them against opponents as tough as Namibia.
But by the time the final ended in agony on Saturday the match had exposed a number of shortcomings in the Young Sables and that they still have a lot to do to improve on their game.
“We put up a lifeless first half performance and we never recovered from then. In games like these it’s very difficult to come back from 21 points down and go on to win because we were on the backfoot from the beginning.
“We failed to pick ourselves up, our decision-making was not good and there were too many mistakes in our side.
“Most of the players in the team have not played at this level before and we conceded a try right under the posts in the early stages of the game, killing the boy’s confidence,” said Chivandire.
Having dominated African rugby over the past three years, Zimbabwe needed to continue with the momentum but Saturday’s defeat was just an indication that something is wrong with the sport.
It is not only about the Young Sables because they are just one of the many teams that are run by the Zimbabwe Rugby Union, but it is unfortunate that they became a sign of reality of how bad things are.
It does not start at the Under-19 age-group but starts with the lower teams and the performance of the lower or feeder teams is most likely to show how well Zimbabwe’s future teams are likely to perform.
From the Under-19 side that lost to Namibia at the weekend, seven of the players that were in this side were part of the Under-18 schools side that was humiliated by Namibia at last week’s edition of the Craven Week festival in South Africa.
Joshua Smallbones, Rees Surtees, Daniel Rorke, Luke Masarire, Tapiwa Tsomondo, Robbie Sargeant and Kudakwashe Makuvire were part of the side that fell 55-18 to Namibia at the Craven Week.
But this was not the first time that Zimbabwe were losing to Namibia at the Craven Week as they have only managed one win over the past four meetings and this came via a 30-12 victory in 2010.
Zimbabwe drew 34-34 against Namibia in 2009, won 30-12 in 2010, and suffered a 55-18 defeat to the same team last year before falling 7-28 to their bitter rivals at the Under-18 stage.
Given that the feeder team’s performance against Namibia at the Under-18 level was deteriorating, Zimbabwe needed to have a serious review and upgrade of their rugby systems if they were to come back stronger at Under-19 level.
Most of the players in the Young Sables side had not played an international game before and exposure to such matches at an early stage is always important if the players are to cope in such competitions.
It was a disaster that was waiting to happen and on Saturday they came face-to-face with the reality that it is Namibia who are the strongest side at the moment.
Over the past six years, the championship had equally been shared between the two African rugby giants and Zimbabwe needed a win to make it their fourth consecutive appearance at the Junior World Ruby Trophy tournament.
Namibia ran to an early 27-6 lead in the first half with the visitors getting their points from tries by Ethan Beukes, G.D Orlam and Donovan Kandiji while Deslee Beukes chipped in with 11 points which included a drop goal, a conversion and two penalties while Zimbabwe replied through two penalties which were converted by Luke “Rhuka” Masasire.
Scrummy Ian Surtees was arguably the weakest link in the Zimbabwe starting XV and there was a huge difference noticed after the more experienced Robert Sargeant came in as a second half replacement.
The introduction of Takudzwa Kumadiro and Sargeant swayed the momentum in Zimbabwe’s favour as the former went on to score a brace of tries before setting up Kudzai Mashawi but it was too little, too late.
Masasire, who breathed life into Zimbabwe on Wednesday against Tunisia, was, however, not well suited for the hosts and Tinashe Toriro seemed pretty much suited for the number 10 jersey given that he is a true team player.
Namibia coach Jood Opperman, who was appointed at the beginning of the year, gave credit to his boys for a determined show that saw them bounce back to become the African champions.
“We were very well prepared for this match and I believe we deserved to win it as we had trained well this time around. These are exciting times for Namibian rugby as this is our fourth win over Zimbabwe this year, if you consider that we have beaten them from the Under-13s all the way to the Under-19s.
“We are slowly regaining our status as the continent’s leading side in age-grade rugby and credit to the union for all the support,” said Opperman.