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Paul Munyuki Harare Bureau
ZIMBABWE’S waning rugby fortunes came to the fore on Saturday as the Sables were demoted into Africa Cup Group 1B following another disappointing defeat by Uganda at Police Grounds.

The hosts reeling from a 61-15 humiation by Kenya at the same venue two weeks ago came a cropper against Uganda again slumping to a 43-27 loss.

After the two shock defeats by East African opposition, the Sables will now head for a reality check with their 2019 Rugby World Cup qualification dream already in tatters.

The fall from grace appears to have been coming for a long time.

But the major question now is, will it facilitate for the Zimbabwe Rugby Union to have a reality check, as they found out first hand that while other nations are advancing, the local game is drawing back leaving a lot of work to be done.

Not only did Saturday’s defeat prove that Zimbabwe is not taking the game seriously but also showed the catastrophic results of mistrust, and taking preparation for granted .

The demotion into the less fashionable Group 1B also underlined the fact that investment in the game is key.

“Key is preparation, we need to start early and we need to start taking this seriously,” said a visibly heartbroken Sables captain Denford Mutamangira.

No doubt the Sables played as a unit, and died as a unit too but it was because of the silly mistakes they made at the point of contact that cost them survival and saw them being relegated to Group 1B.

Zimbabwe got their points from tries by Tangai Nemadire, Lungile Tshuma and Stephan Hundudza, while Lenience Tarembwa added two penalties and three conversions.

But the visitors proved better with a Syrus Watum hat-trick, as hooker Robert Masendi and winger Thomas Kalyango added one try each.

Watum, who had a bad day in the office with the boot, also chipped in with two conversions and a penalty and at the end of the game statistics weighed against the Sables – a performance that Mutamangira labelled as “unacceptable”.

Three of the tries Zimbabwe conceded came as a result of the fact that Uganda were dominant at the point of contact where they turned defence into attack and did so in a smart way.

Of the 11 line outs, Zimbabwe only won two further compounding their problems as they had very little ball possession.

“We decided to contest but I think we were a bit slow in reaction, they got most of their line outs and in our line outs, things just did not work well today. We were caught sleeping a few times and at this international level that is not acceptable,” said Mutamangira.

The defeat by Kenya had already heaped pressure on the Sables and they tried too hard, committed a lot going forward but still left gaps which Uganda exploited.

This was Zimbabwe’s sixth defeat in as many games a streak that started with an 80-6 away loss to Namibia in the final game of the Africa Cup last August and was followed by three defeats in the Hong Kong Cup of Nations (Hong Kong 30-11, Russia 50-5, and Portugal 36-11).

While the players had been getting empty promises from the ZRU over the past years due to lack of payment in their appearance and match fees, a rift naturally grew between the two parties as the payment pledge has now become just a chorus.

But it was not until a fortnight ago that the players – not believing that they would get their dues after the game – almost boycotted their game against Kenya, a match they played under protest but with due respect the ZRU honoured their pledge.

By the time the players tried to focus on the game after being paid it was a little too late

Poor preparations also played a role in the Sables demise.

While this was Zimbabwe’s only second match since November, Kenya had played eight games prior to playing in the Africa Cup.

Uganda also had a fair share of game time and that showed in the errors Cyprian “Supa” Mandenge’s boys made.

Of course Zimbabwe had dominated both Uganda and Kenya in the past six years, managing with poor preparation the Sables technical team would always prevail, a mentality that had been carved in the minds of the ZRU administration.

Unfortunately reality has caught up with the Sables now.

Zimbabwe’s domestic rugby structure is barely anything to go by.

Clubs like Old Hararians where veteran lock Costa Dinha, scrummy Charles Jiji, wingers Tangai Nemadire and Gerald Sibanda came from decided not to play a number of games during the season and no measures were taken against them.