The Sunday News
ZIMBABWE national Sevens rugby team coach Gilbert Nyamutsamba believes there is a lot of encouragement despite a dismal display by the Cheetahs at the HSBC World Sevens Series South Africa leg played in Port Elizabeth last weekend.
The Zimbabwe Cheetahs lost all the five matches they played at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium to return home empty handed.
What made the task even tougher for Zimbabwe was that they were the only non-core member country at the 16-team two-day tournament. Zimbabwe takes part in the tournament through invitation since they are not a full member of the World Rugby Sevens Rugby Series while main circuit countries play in all the nine competitions in the season.
“It was a tough weekend for us as expected when trying to compete against the world’s best. However, we can take some positives out of the tournament. One of our main objectives was for the young players to get necessary exposure and experience. In the five games we played we improved with each game and putting good performance against Samoa where we lost by one try,” said Nyamutsamba.
Zimbabwe lost their first pool match 31-5 to Argentina. They were also mauled 50-0 by Australia in their second fixture, before losing 7-19 to Portugal in their last pool match.
After losing all their pool B matches, Zimbabwe finished bottom of their group with just three points, Zimbabwe progressed through to the Bowl quarter-finals where they lost 22-5 to Canada then Shield semi-finals where they went down 21-14 to Samoa to return home without a win just like they did last year from the same tournament.
Zimbabwe last recorded a victory at the South African leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series in 2012 when they defeated Scotland 21-14 in the Bowl semi-finals.
Nyamutsamba said to show how tough their pool was, Australia and Argentina reached the Cup last four while Portugal won the Shield.
“Just to appreciate how tough the group was, both Australia and Argentina made it to the Cup semis and Portugal won the Shield final,” he said.
The Cheetahs only get back together again at the beginning of March next year to prepare for the Zimbabwe International Sevens in Harare, a tournament that will be used to select the final squad for the Hong Kong World Series qualifier at the end of the same month. In Hong Kong, Zimbabwe will once again try to become a core member, something they failed to achieve this year when they lost 17-12 to Italy in extra time at the quarterfinal stage of the qualifiers.
