The Sunday News
Innocent Kurira , Sports Reporter
THE Young Sables got their Rugby Africa Barthes Trophy defence off to a perfect start after cruising to a 55-0 victory over Cote d’Ivoire at the Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya yesterday.
Their semi-final opponents will be Tunisia on Wednesday. Zimbabwe’s opponents in the last four won their quarter-final encounter won 50-16 against Madagascar.
Shaun De Souza’s men, the Barthes Trophy defending champions were a far much better side in the match as they sounded warning signals that they mean business in defending their title.
Zimbabwe won the last edition of the competition after beating Namibia in the final. The young Zimbabweans managed to lift the trophy following their three matches without defeat.
The Zimbabweans defeated Tunisia 19-18 and Madagascar 32-3 in the semi-finals, before beating arch-rivals Namibia 19-14 in the final.
Young Sables
Before last year’s success, Zimbabwe had last been crowned champions on home soil in 2012.
Meanwhile, the country’s sevens rugby team, the Cheetahs ended the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series 2023 with a 40-17 triumph over Papua New Guinea in a ninth place play-off at Markötter Stadium in Stellenbosch yesterday.
On day two, Zimbabwe lost 40-21 against Belgium before they defeated Jamaica 29-24.
Zimbabwe are now gearing up for the second World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series at the same venue starting on Friday.
The winner of the men’s competition, which will also be decided on aggregate points over the two events, will enter a four-team play-off at the HSBC London Sevens in May together with the teams placed 12th to 14th after 10 rounds of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023.
The winner of the play-off will achieve the coveted Sevens World Series 2024 status.
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