Sevens' coach blames poor preparations

MOGOMOTSI BUZWANI
Correspondent | Wednesday September 1, 2010 00:00

 

Botswana lost all its games at the tournament and the coach, Mooketsi Ramakele, has blamed insufficient training time as the major reason for the poor play.  He said the side had less than a week to prepare. Ramakele recently succeeded Andrew Paxinos as Botswana Sevens' rugby coach.  His charges lost all four games against Zambia, Namibia and Mpumalanga (twice) in the CAR tournament.  He stated that the team spent little time together and only trained from Monday and Thursday.

He told Mmegi Sport this week that his players had not adapted well to his training methods.  The coach noted that the majority of his squad lacked international exposure.

'We only trained for four days and I have realised that it is one factor that contributed to the poor performance. The players are still to settle to my coaching style and they also need more exposure in international competitions,' he said.

Ramakele suggested that the Sevens squad should play more games in order to gain exposure.  'We are focusing on their performance as it is the key to better results,' he said.  The team was hit by injuries after the first game and Eddie Ernest, Tshoganetso Katse and Biki Mawela were forced out of the tournament after just one match.   The team will take part in the Sevens Circuit tournament in South Africa on September 18.

While the men's team was below par in Zambia, their female counterparts, showed an improvement.  Women's coach, Shaun Lees, said the team put up a better show compared to the previous competition. 

They won their first match 17-10 against hosts Zambia before losing 28-0 to Zimbabwe. 'They have improved compared to last year's performance.  Zimbabwe managed to beat us with a high margin because of their physical strength,' Lees said. He expressed concern about the refereeing standards.  'The refereeing was below standard and we raised the issue with the tournament organisers,' he said.