The Sunday News
THE Confederation of African Rugby and the International Rugby Board have pledged technical as well as financial assistance to the Zimbabwe Rugby Union to ensure the Zimbabwe Sables successfully compete in the upcoming IRB Rugby World Cup play-offs. ZRU president John Falkenberg met CAR and IRB officials during the 2015 IRB Rugby World Cup Africa qualifiers recently played in Antananarivo, Madagascar where he sought support for the Sables who are due to meet Russia in Siberia on 2 August.
The Sables lost out on an automatic qualification spot after being shut out by Namibia on the last day of the qualifiers. Zimbabwe thought they had done enough to qualify when they defeated Kenya 28-10 in their last match only for Namibia to steal the automatic slot with an 89-10 pounding of Madagascar.
Now Zimbabwe have to go through the longer route as they try to qualify for the Rugby World Cup for the first time since 1991. The Brendan Dawson-coached Sables, ranked 27 in the world face off against Russia who are the 20th best team in the world in the Siberian town of Krasnoyarsk in a once off Test match whose winner will play the team that comes out victorious in the clash between Asian runners up Hong Kong and the South American qualifiers second best team Uruguay on a home and away basis for the last remaining place in England next year.
“We are getting a lot of technical and financial assistance from CAR and IRB for us to get to Russia. In future we need to convince the whole world that Africa deserves three slots at the World Cup,’’ said Falkenberg.
