Young Sables fight for pride

Sport
BY ALBERT MARUFU ZIMBABWE Under-20 rugby side will be looking to salvage lost pride in the 2011 IRB Junior World Rugby Tournament when they take on USA in the battle for a seventh place play-off.

The match will be played today in Georgia. The Young Sables, who went into the tournament gunning for a top four finish, were left to fight for the wooden spoon after losing all their Pool B matches to finalists Japan (37 – 24), Canada (49 – 23), and the hosts Georgia who thrashed them 50 -19.

While ill preparations in the run up to the tournament can be attributed to the team’s poor performance in the pool stages, size proved to be a huge factor as Zimbabwe fell short against all the teams in Pool B. Zimbabwe had only three players over the 100kg mark compared to Georgia’s nine. Georgia also had their back row having an average weight of 97kg while the front row combination averaged 98kg.