The Sunday Mail
Tinashe Kusema
Deputy Sports Editor
ONE of the most interesting things to emerge from the Sables’ extended training camp ahead of this week’s international rugby friendly matches against Zambia is the indication that young and new faces are featuring prominently in coach Brendan Dawson’s mind.
The 2023 Rugby World Cup qualification, as Sables manager Jason Maritz so eloquently put it, remains the top priority for the senior team.
Preparations for the showpiece set for France have begun.
They will move a gear up with friendlies against Zambia ( back-to-back), Namibia and a Blue Bulls select side in the coming weeks.
After a series of friendlies, the Sables will head off to Tunisia for the Africa Cup Pool D matches in early July.
The Rugby Africa Cup kicks off later with a tricky tie away to Tunisia on July 12.
Zimbabwe got their preparations underway by joining the SuperSport Rugby Challenge, which culminated in Victoria Cup success.
Covid-19 then pegged the Sables back.
More than a year of preparations were lost due to the inactivity.
Maritz revealed that they had now turned to the youth as they make do with a “crash programme of preparations’’.
“The thing that you have to appreciate is that the Rugby World Cup is in two years, and there are a lot of 21- and 22-year-olds that could put their hands up.
“We have built a database over the last two years since the SuperSport Challenge and figured that there are a lot of international players that we haven’t been able to call up in the past.
“We have been in contact with them, they are aware of what we are doing, what we want to achieve and some have already heeded the call by coach Dawsy (Brendan Dawson),” Maritz said.
The bulk of foreign-based players had reportedly availed themselves for national duty.
“The more appropriate term here is ‘buy-in’; the boys have bought into the coach’s vision, they trust the coaches and they have trust in the programme.
“They understand what we are trying to do here, and that is to make history.
“In order to do that, we are going to have to do things that no team before us has done.
“However, we are going to walk before we run and work with the players we have in camp right now,” he said.
Some of the new players were on full display during training at Old Georgians Sports Club.
They included rookie brothers Munopa and Munesu Muneta, New Zealand-based Doug Juszczyk and Brandon Mudzekenyedzi.
Their run of games begins on Tuesday when they square-up against Zambia in the first of back-to-back games.
The second encounter is on Saturday, with both games slated for the Harare Sports Club’s Machinery Exchange Stadium.
The one thing the Zimbabwe camp should not take lightly is their match-up against neighbours Zambia; after all, it’s a derby.
It is a sentiment shared by Sables skipper Hilton Mudariki.
“It’s been a long two years (without any rugby), but the guys have come back excited, and come back fit,” said Mudariki.
“Through the lockdowns and the pandemic, our coach has been sending us programmes for the guys to work on and they arrived back fit and ready to play.”
He also demanded focus for the Zambia games.
“The most important thing for us is just to focus on ourselves and perfect our game.
“We know that Zambia is a quality outfit, they have been on the up for some years now, we just have to make sure we nail down our things and what the coaches want to achieve.
“We definitely want results, we want to win all our games, and we also want to look at some of the new guys and see where they fit into the system.
“The big one is Tunisia in a month or so, and we want to be ready for that.
“We owe them one (Tunisia), but we have to take it one game at a time, and that starts with Zambia.”
