THE Zimbabwe senior rugby team were left staring relegation from the elite Rugby Africa Gold Cup, which would effectively end their hopes of qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup after succumbing to a disappointing 23-31 to a visiting Tunisia side at Prince Edward School yesterday.
By KENNEDY NYAVAYA
After handing the Tunisians their first win in the competition, the Sables plunged to the bottom of the six-team Rugby African Gold Cup standings, with three defeats and one win in four matches ahead of a do or die contest against Uganda in Kampala next week.
An undefined game plan and failure to execute basics spelled a loss for the Sables from the onset as they were losing ball possession as soon as they got it in addition to laxity in their defense line.
Despite flyhalf Tichafara Makwanya opening the scoresheet with a penalty conversion three minutes into the game, it was the visitors who dominated the first half as the Sables failed to stamp their authority in the contest.
The North Africans led 16 -13 at the break courtesy of a converted try by fullback Issan Werhani and three penalties from the surefooted second centre Chanseddiw Khalifa.
Zimbabwe responded through scrumhalf Hilton Mudariki’s converted try and two penalties from the boot of flyhalf Tichafara Makwanya.
In the second half the visitors continued the assault, with Khalifa serving as the catalyst for Zimbabwe’s downfall as he added a further eight points from two penalties while converting one of the two quick tries by winger Chadi Jabri.
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The Cyprian Mandenge coached team seemed eager to repeat their first half mistakes as they continued to play second fiddle at the breakdown and making too many ball handling errors.
Even tries from lock Kingsley Liang and replacement prop Irvine Nduwa could not salvage the situation as the visitors held on to their first ever win over Zimbabwe.
A visibly-dejected Mandenge could not hide his disappointment after the match, hitting out at his players for not getting the basics right.
“I am very disappointed; they just came with a game plan and stuck to it. We had players in the right areas but we were missing tackles, I don’t know how I can defend people for something like that. Last week we were talking about fatigue, what can we talk about now? We gave the players enough rest but still we were not tackling and at this level it not acceptable,” he said, adding that he was confident the Sables would survive relegation.
