The Sunday Mail
CHEETAHS’ coach Gilbert Nyamutsamba has set his sights on using next month’s Kwese Sports Sevens Tournament in Victoria Falls to blood new players.
“Expect to see new faces at the tournament,” said Nyamutsamba in an interview on the sidelines of the tournament’s launch in Harare during last week. “The goal right now is to participate at the Africa Cup Sevens tournament, and qualify for next year’s Rugby World Cup Sevens in the United States.
“However, before we can do all that we have go back to the drawing board and look at our personnel. This starts with Kwese Sports Sevens.”
Nyamutsamba seems ready to go far and wide in search of the next generation of Cheetahs.
“I have handed in my proposal to the Zimbabwe Rugby Union and asked every rugby playing province to hold at least two sevens tournaments. They are then required to come up with a provincial team, which will then take part in a national tournament next month.
“The goal of these tournaments is to identify talent, which I then intend to call up into the Cheetahs’ squad for the Victoria Falls tournament. Those that will shine, will then join the more established and foreign guys, in the Cheetahs outfit, when we begin our season and later on take part in the Africa Cup in November,” he said.
The provinces have been given until the end of the month to hold tournaments and come up with their teams. The national sevens tournament is then expected to be held on March 3-4 at a venue yet to be established.
The inaugural edition of the Kwese Sports Victoria Sevens Tournament, which will feature eight yet-to-be-confirmed national teams, is penciled in for Elephant Hills Hotel in Victoria Falls from March 18-19. ZRU president Nyararai Sibanda said, “We chose Victoria Falls as the venue, as it goes hand in hand with our goal to promote sport tourism. The tournament is targeted at some of our fellow African nations that usually don’t get to participate in the World Sevens Series or any of the other high profile tournaments.
“While the main target will be to invite some of our Africa nations, we hope it goes and begins to attract other nations outside the borders of our continent over the initial five years of our partnership with Kwese Sports,” he said.
