The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda
MADAGASCAR’S resilience coupled with crafty ball handling skills earned them promotion into the Under-20 Barthes Cup after they broke the hearts of spirited Zimbabwe 27-25 at Prince Edward School on Saturday.
This win for Madagascar comes of the back on a massive 65-0 against Morocco in their opening match giving them the top spot in the group.
Zimbabwe paid dearly for another slow start in addition to a series of errors, by half time Madagascar led 15-7, but the host came back fighting leading 25-22 five minutes to the close of the match.
Madagascar were rewarded for their vigilance and came back with a runaway try in the final moments.
Zimbabwe head coach Farai ‘Bob’ Mahari lamented his team’s costly errors.
“A slow start in the first half affected us and we will have to review what went wrong, we made mistakes and they punished us for it and at this level decent teams will punish you. So yes it was mistakes.You can never fault the energy of the boys, they wanted to play but they were probably not doing the right things in the right places,” said Mahari.
Meanwhile Morocco will be relegated from Group B after losing 38-6 to Ivory Coast to finish at the bottom of the log.
Group B Results Summary
17 April Zimbabwe 26-10 Ivory Coast
17 April Madagascar 65-0 Morocco
20 April Ivory Coast 38-6 Morocco
20 April Zimbabwe 25-27 Madagascar – ZRU
