BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
The Sables have lined up a high-profile preparatory match against South African provincial rugby side Western Province later this month as they look to fill the gap in their schedule of preparatory matches ahead of the Rugby Africa Cup.
Zimbabwe’s preparations for the first phase of the 2023 Rugby World Cup qualifiers in Tunisia next month suffered a setback after Namibia withdrew from two scheduled Test matches in Harare and Windhoek citing Covid-19 restrictions still in place in the southern African nation.
Following the withdrawal of their bitter rivals Namibia from the two high-profile matches, Zimbabwe Rugby Union (ZRU), who are targeting World Cup qualification for the first time in three decades, have moved quickly to fill the gap by arranging an encounter against Western Province in Cape Town on June 24.
This will be the second meeting between the two sides inside two years after their clash in the 2019 SuperSport Rugby Challenge, where they competed as the Zimbabwe Rugby Academy in their debut campaign.
The Cape Town-based side won that match 33-13 at Newlands Rugby Stadium, but the Zimbabwe Rugby Academy put up a good show during the encounter and will be hoping for similarly tough competition in their upcoming encounter.
The Western Province encounter could be Zimbabwe’s second match in South Africa as they are making plans to play against a Blue Bulls select team at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on July 3 or 8 before the Sables head off to Tunisia on July 12.
In Tunisia, Zimbabwe will face the Rugby Africa repechage winner on July 14 and then clash with Tunisia four days later.
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The Rugby Africa Cup repechage, which ends today in Burkina Faso features the hosts, Burundi and Cameroon.
The 2021 Africa Cup is the first stage of qualifying for the 2023 World Cup to be held in France, and Zimbabwe will need to win the continental competition next year to book their ticket to the global showpiece.
Zimbabwe kicked off their schedule of warm up matches with two back to back friendlies against Zambia in Harare, beating the neighbours comfortably by score-lines of 31-8 and 56-3 on June 2 and five respectively.
The strong expanded squad, which is composed of players plying their trade in different countries around the world has been camping in Harare since May 15.
