The Sunday Mail
Mehluli Sibanda in Johannesburg, South Africa
THE Zimbabwe Cheetahs breezed through the group stages of the Rugby Africa Sevens Olympic Qualifiers here yesterday.
Skipper Jacques Leitao and his men put up an impressive display as they were victorious in all their three pool matches.
They triumphed 31-12 over Nigeria and followed that up with a 48-0 routing of Zambia.
Kilvan Magunje scoring one of the tries for Zimbabwe in their 43-0 victory over Uganda in South Africa yesterday
A 43-0 dismantling of Uganda capped a fine day at the office.
Zimbabwe will now play against Nigeria today in the quarterfinals high on confidence.
In the other quarterfinal fixtures, Namibia go up against Morocco while Uganda have a date with Tunisia.
Zimbabwe got their first try 39 seconds into the match against Nigeria from Tafadzwa Chitokwindo only for Boyd Rous to miss the conversion.
ln the fourth minute, Nigeria replied with a try by Ayominde Mogaji whose conversion kick was missed.
Chitokwindo picked up his second try, chasing and gathering a grubber kick from Riaan O’Neil, only for Rouse’s kicking to let him down again.
Zimbabwe’s third try came in the first minute of the second half, with Rouse going over on the left corner.
Nigeria had their second try in the third minute of the second half with Christian Ogar benefitting from a brilliant move by Onoru Jatto.
Manasah Sita, back in the Cheetahs side after a three year hiatus, made the game look so easy, slicing through the Nigerian defence with simplicity to score Zimbabwe’s fourth try of the game with Graham Kaulback weighing in with the conversion.
Tapiwa Tsomondo delivered the fifth try for the Cheetahs which was successfully converted by Lenience Tambwera.
In the battle against their northern neighbours, Zimbabwe struggled to stamp their authority at the beginning of match but got going as the game progressed.
In the last pool encounter Chitokwindo opened the scoring, his effort complemented by Stephan Hunduza.
Chitokwindo went over the whitewash again and Tambwera was on target with two of the conversions for a 19-0 halftime lead.
O’Neill weighed in with the fourth try for the Cheetahs two minutes after the interval.
However, the conversion was missed by Tambwera who once again could not find the target.
With a minute left, Shayne Makombe sent Kilvan Magunje for the fifth five-pointer and Tambwera struck the conversion through.
The winner of the 12-team tournament will qualify for the Olympic Games while the second, third and fourth-placed teams will get one final shot at qualification through the 16-team global repechage tournament next year
Meanwhile, the Cheetahs are enjoying backing from the country’s highest representative in South Africa as Isaac Moyo, the Zimbabwean Ambassador here was at the tournament venue yesterday and promised to be in attendance again today.
“I have met every one of the players, I saw that morale is very high. I told them we are behind them, we are confident that they will do well.
“They assured me that they are going to fight for a victorious outcome, I also met with the coach, he was positive, he was happy that we have come to support the team,’’ said Ambassador Moyo.
