BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
The Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU has been making concerted efforts to ensure the senior national team — the Sables — adequately prepares for the 2023 World Cup qualifiers, after approaching the Netherlands for a possible end of year tour of the European nation.
The Sables are facing the grim prospect of not playing any international matches this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Zimbabwe was set to make its second appearance in South Africa’s SuperSport Rugby Challenge before playing Tests against Ghana and Tunisia in the Rugby Africa Cup.
With both tournaments cancelled by both the South African Rugby Union (Saru) and Rugby Africa due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Sables coach Brendan Dawson revealed that plans were now at an advanced stage for the national rugby side to tour the Netherlands.
Efforts are also being made by the ZRU leadership led by former Zimbabwe international Aaron Jani, to organise Test matches against Germany and Belgium when normalcy returns to the sport later this year after the Covid-19 chaos.
“What we are doing at the moment is we are going to try to go to the Netherlands and we are in the process of planning the tour,” Dawson said in a podcast with New Zealand journalist Joey Wheeler.
“They [Netherlands] are ranked 25th in the world and we are currently 35th in the world so we can try and play a couple of those nations prior to next year.
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That’s the plan at the moment. We have talked to the Netherlands, we will try to get hold of Germany and Belgium who are all ranked higher than us,” Dawson said.
After making their debut in the SuperSport Rugby Challenge last year, Dawson revealed that Zimbabwe have been accepted to participate in next year’s Currie Cup First Division, which is a rung below South Africa’s premier domestic rugby union competition, the Currie Cup.
Dawson believes the South African provincial tournament will provide the country with an opportunity to build a formidable group of players, who he expects to play an important role during the 2023 Rugby World Cup qualifiers.
Last year Zimbabwe’s participation in the SuperSport Challenge set the platform for the Sables to lift the Victoria Cup after triumphing in five out of six Tests against Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.
“Next year we’ve been confirmed to go to play in the Currie Cup B section so that’s a very good stepping stone for us. It’s massive for us and we will get all our players to go and compete in that in preparation for our Africa Cup which leads into 2022 which I believe will be our World Cup qualifiers. We are using next year as a platform to build a team, which will qualify for the World Cup. I want to use the younger players, those guys that are playing around the world, gaining that experience and getting that knowledge of playing outside the country.”
Dawson is also targeting Zimbabwean players plying their trade in various nations around the world, having already managed to lure New Zealand-based centre Brendon Mudzekenyedzi during his two-week attachment at the Super Rugby side Hurricanes in February.
“We’ve got a tremendous amount of guys around the world. In New Zealand, weve got a magnificent centre [Mudzekenyedzi] playing for Waikato, he’s put his hand up and said Dawsie I want to play for Zimbabwe, and we want to qualify for the World Cup. We are hoping to use those platforms such as the Currie Cup to do well in the Africa Cup and ultimately qualify for the World Cup,” he said.
Despite the recent uncertainty brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, ZRU have been making efforts to ensure that the Sables qualify for the 2023 World Cup.
The local rugby governing body recently showed faith in Dawson by giving the 52-year-old decorated former Sables skipper the mandate to take the team to the global showpiece.
Dawson, who took the Sables to the brink of 2015 World Cup qualification in his first stint, will head a strong technical team which includes team manager Jason Maritz, former Zimbabwe captain Daniel Hondo (backline coach), with Liam Middleton staying as defence coach.
South African Graham Knoop, who toured Zimbabwe in 2018 as captain of Cape Town’s False Bay Rugby Club, joins as line-out coach while Harare fitness guru Alice Randall is the team’s new physiotherapist.
Zimbabwe last took part in the World Cup back in 1991 and will need to win the 2022 edition of the Rugby Africa Cup to automatically qualify for the 2023 event in France
