Chavhanga, PDV reunite

08 Apr, 2018 - 00:04 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

SABLES coach Peter De Villiers and Zimbabwean born former Springbok player Tonderai Chavhanga are set for an unlikely reunion.

The two are expected to headline this weekend’s Old Mutual Legends Cup at Harare Sports Club.

Saturday’s match will see a De Villiers coached Zimbabwe select side take on South African side Vodacom Blue Bulls.

Chavhanga has been roped into the Zimbabwe select side (Zambezi Steelers) and will be under the eye of a coach who gave him two of his four Springboks caps.

The 34-year-old Chavhanga also played for South Africa’s Under-21 side and Emerging Springboks.

He made his international debut for the Springboks as a 21-year-old on June 11, 2005 on the right wing, in a home game against Uruguay at the Basil Kenyon Stadium in East London.

The Boks won 134: 3 with Chavhanga scoring six tries; a performance that remains a record for the most number of tries by an individual in a national team match.

Chavhanga is one three internationals expected to play for the Steelers, alongside former All-Blacks great Rodney So’oialo and Rian Radebe.

The games organisers explained the concept behind the match up.

“The Steelers are a Kyros-owned invitational team, and here we have taken up the Barbarians’ model where we intend to infuse our own local talent with a few seasoned professional,” said Kyros Sports founder Kisset Chirengende.

“The team will be coached by Sables’ gaffer Peter De Villiers whom we have given room to choose his own players. We expect these players to be contenders for the Sables jersey. “The international stars, who include Chavhanga, So’oialo and Redebe, will mostly come in to add their wealth of experience,” he said.

Chirengende is confident of hosting a successful event. “This is our third edition and the plan was to make it stand out from the previous two occasions we have brought in these super rugby teams.

“Once Tonderai (Chavhanga) availed himself, we jumped at the opportunity to rope him in and play for the Zambezi Steelers, giving some of local rugby fans an opportunity to watch one of the greatest rugby exports Zimbabwe has ever produced play,” he said.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s nightmarish run at the on-going Hong Kong Sevens qualifiers yesterday finally came to an end, as the Cheetahs were thrashed 38-5 by an impressive Irish squad.

That the Cheetahs bowed out of the competition at the quarterfinal stage comes as no consolation as the team barely made it out of the group stages.

Defeats to tournament favourites Germany (27-7) and Hong Kong (19-14), saw the team go through as the best placed third-place finishers and it was almost inevitable that they would fall by the wayside in the next round.

The Cheetahs performance throughout the tournament should, however, come as a warning to the Zimbabwe Rugby Union on the importance of adequate preparations.

 

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