adminsuffered a neck injury in training.
After watching rivals Namibia beat Uganda 22-12, in their penultimate qualifier game for the Junior World Rugby Trophy on Wednesday, the Zimbabwe Under-19 side went for a training session.
Team manager Tungamirai Mashungu said Zulu suffered the injury in a rucking session.
“He is out for three weeks, which effectively takes him out of the last game against Namibia on Saturday.
“He went for X-rays and they could not see anything but it is said that there are some muscle spasms,” said Mashungu
But Zulu was not the only one who sat out of training yesterday morning at Harare Sports Club as the duo of Murray Bryce-Rodgers and Daniel Rorke were also out.
Rorke and Bryce-Rodgers were down with flu and have to fully recover by noon if they are to make it for the big game. Winger Justin Coles was not part of the training squad due to examination commitments.
With the starting XV to face Namibia expected to be named this afternoon, it was business as usual for the rest of the squad who had a 90-minute training session at Harare Sports Club in the morning.
This was their last training session before they take on Namibia tomorrow but they are, however, expected to have their captain’s run at the match venue at 2pm.
“I believe we have what it takes to make sure the Cup remains at home because we have been getting better with each passing game and I am sure we will be strong as well on Saturday. We saw where we were going wrong in the first half against Tunisia, we rectified that during the half time and that is why we scored 29 points in the last half,” said Mashungu.
The Young Sables only managed a Mclean Muhambi unconverted try in the first half but they scored five more tries in the second half, all coming from flanker Farai Jijita’s hattrick, and centre Preston Bryant’s double.
Zimbabwe managed to spread the ball wide and this was when the points started ticking on the board.
Unlike the Namibians, Zimbabwe do not have a lot of size in their side and will have to rely on pace and mobility if they are to overpower the bigger Namibians.
Meanwhile, National Rugby League president Noddy Kanyangara has indicated the league will take another break this weekend and games are set to resume next week.
Kanyangarara said they have to give way to the juniors so as to avoid counter attractions while his referees’ society counterpart Mudiwa Mundawarara added they need more officials at the international tournament.
“The CAR Under-19 tournament that is ongoing is a Pan African event and it is the first time that Zimbabwe has been asked to host such an event. For this tournament, Zimbabwe was required to provide a centre referee, six assistant referees, a fourth and fifth official, all the table officials (two statisticians, a timekeeper, and a recorder), a referee manager, performance reviewers (four in all), citing officials (three in all) and a judicial officer.
“All but one of these came from within the ranks of the referees. We simply do not have enough people to cover this important event, schools and league,” said Mundawarara.
Results
Pool A: Namibia 9, Tunisia 8; Zimbabwe 16, Uganda 8; Zimbabwe 34, Tunisia 0; Namibia 22, Uganda 12.
Pool B: Kenya 22, Zambia 13; Madagascar 7, Morocco 6; Zambia 20, Morocco 21; Kenya 31, Maddagascar 14.
Tomorrow’s Fixtures
Madagascar v Zambia (11am), Tunisia v Uganda (12.30pm), Morocco v Kenya (2pm), Zimbabwe v Namibia (3.30pm).
Online Reporter