BRU�s sobering moment after Vic Falls baptism
Calistus Kolantsho | Wednesday March 22, 2017 14:38
Botswana had three teams; two senior sides and the Under-19 boys.
The tour was meant to expose development players who feed the senior team with eyes on, among others, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualification.
The Under-19 side had a good tournament, showing improvement that saw them reach the semi finals.
The Young Vultures won three of the five games they played. The side was almost at the same level as their opponents from the Zimbabwe rugby academies and schools. However the senior teams, the A and B sides, did not do well, with both emerging winless.
The head of delegation of the tour, Ernest Mantsi said the focus was to expose some of the new faces who could potentially be part of the national team.
“Out of the 20 players that travelled, 10 had not played for the national team before. From what we saw in their performance, only a few have shown the potential of making it into the national team,” he said.
Mantsi said the tour has shown them which areas to work on before international competitions.
BRU vice president-technical, Sean Irish who was coaching both senior sides, said their opponents had lot of experience especially the Zimbabwe team.
“Most of the players for the Zimbabwe team were in the Olympic trials two years ago. It was a strong team and they played against our developmental side. We are working on building strong teams,” Irish said.
He said the intention is to have strong teams by September this year. He said they want strong Sevens teams that can compete in the region. He pointed out that at the moment they are still stuck in the 10’s and 15’s in domestic leagues.
Irish said they want to be competitive in Olympic qualifiers and Africa Sevens championships.
Meanwhile, Irish said the Under-19 side is a new BRU initiative that started last year. Retired national team player, Hugo Botha coaches the side.
For his part, Zimbabwe coach Gilbert Nyamutsamba complimented the Botswana senior team, saying they had shown great improvement. He said it was a good thing that teams in the region are on the right track.
“Experience and game time matters a lot in a Sevens tournament. I know that our neighbours do not have lot of tournaments like we do here. They should have more game time if they are to go far,” he said.
The Kwese Sports championship was won by Zimbabwe (The Cheetahs) after beating Namibia 24-7 in an explosive final match.
Zimbabwe led 12-0 at the break after exploiting the Namibian defence down the blindside for both their tries. Namibia hit back with a try of their own early in the second half, but Zimbabwe were stronger in all departments, including the scrums and line-outs, and managed to score two more tries to clinch the title.