Vultures set for Africa rugby tournament
Spira Tlhankane | Friday July 3, 2015 14:21
The Vultures are in Pool B alongside Ivory Coast and Mauritius and they will face Pool B teams: Madagascar, Senegal and the hosts Uganda. After facing Madagascar this Sunday, Botswana will then tackle the Rugby Cranes Uganda on Wednesday. Botswana will finish off with Senegal in the last game. Ivor Greeves is in charge of the team and admits it would be tough.
“We don’t have professional players; they work during the day and train at night so it is a bit frustrating for us,” Greeves said. With qualification to Africa Tier 1A at stake, Greeves said they would take every game as it comes, but the main aim is to win all the games. In terms of preparation, Greeves has confessed their need to reinvent the wheel.
“We recently won a game and we have been preparing for this tournament so all in all we are set for this tournament,” he said. However, he was quick to indicate that there are injuries in the squad. Greeves said despite the kneecap injuries, some of the new entrants to the squad would patch the squad to perfection. Greeves said the amount of hunger he sees in the new entrants is promising. He said they intend to benchmark because they would be playing against players who compete in a professional setup.
“It will be a high intensity tournament against much tougher opponents, but I cannot take anything from the lads, they will do their best,” he said.
After winning promotion to the Africa tier 1B last year when they hosted Africa Cup 2014 tier 1C Championship, the Vultures will only hope to keep their momentum up or risk being relegated again. The Vultures were relegated back to Division 1C in 2013 after faring badly at the tier 1B Championships in Senegal. Should they win this year’s tournament and gain promotion into tier 1A, the Vultures would play in a much tougher stage next year. The team that collects the highest points in this tournament will be promoted to Rugby Africa Tier 1A next year. On the other hand, the team that finishes last at the end of the championship will be demoted to Tier 1C.