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Geophrey Sifani Sports reporter
THE national women’s rugby team has failed to go into camp to prepare for their Olympic qualifiers set for Johannesburg, South Africa, on September 24 due to lack of funds. The Lady Cheetahs were expected to go into a four-day camp in Hwange from Thursday to work on some combinations and strategies. National women’s rugby team head coach Abigail Kawonza said they wanted to be away from all disturbances to fully concentrate on their preparations.

“We wanted to be away for a while and we had hoped to have teams from Namibia and South African joining us for the practice camp, but funds failed us,” said Kawonza.

She said they would select the final team that will go into the final camp in Harare on September 20 ahead of their departure for South Africa.

The Lady Cheetahs have been preparing for the Olympic qualifiers since February by playing friendly matches against Botswana and Zambia to help shape their stamina.

“These games helped the technical team trim the squad and also to gauge where we were and what we needed to work on before the tournament.”

Ten teams will take part in the qualifiers made up of two groups from which the top teams will automatically qualify for Rio in 2016, while the runners-up would be involved in another round of qualifiers.

Pool A: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Namibia, Zambia

Pool B: Kenya, Tunisia, Madagascar, Senegal, Botswana