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Mehluli Sibanda recently in Harare
ZIMBABWE senior fifteens rugby team coach Cyprian “Super” Mandenge has blamed lack of match fitness for the Sables unconvincing victory over Kenya in their opening Africa Cup Division 1A encounter played at Prince Edward School on Saturday. Before they took on Kenya on Saturday, the Sables had last been in international action in August last year against Russia in a 2015 Rugby World Cup inter confederation playoff which the Russians won 23-15 in Krasnoyarsk to end Zimbabwe’s dreams of qualifying for this year’s World Cup in England.

The Sables raced to a 14-0 lead over the Simbas in the first 15 minutes on Saturday only to allow the East Africans to twice draw level but Zimbabwe held on for a hard fought 28-20 victory.

Lock Sanele Sibanda, second centre Riaan O’Neil and wing Tafadzwa Chitokwindo scored the tries for Zimbabwe with flyhalf Tichafara Makwanya chipping in with two conversions and three penalty goals. Kenya picked up three tries, one conversion and a penalty goal.

Mandenge, in his first match in charge since he succeeded Brendan Dawson, said it was clear that the team did not have match fitness as they fizzled out halfway into the match after so much dominance. He was however impressed by the fact that his side managed to win the match.

“We played well but lack of match fitness was showing. The team was as good as the first 20 minutes of the match. If you look at the tries they (Kenya) scored, they didn’t deserve them, they scored from our mistakes, failure to react. Our first time tackling wasn’t great,’’ said Mandenge.

“This was our first game together so I’m pleased with the result; we had a lot of positives and negatives. What we’ve to do now is eliminate the negatives. The result was the biggest positive, the game plan we executed it well at some point. We’re much better than what we showed yesterday (Saturday).”

Kenya coach Jerome Paarwater described Saturday’s contest as a great game of entertaining rugby.

Zimbabwe’s plans were affected when it turned out that they were only going to be allowed to name a match day squad of 22 players as opposed to 23 as per the World Rugby regulations for international Test matches. This meant that they had to drop Old Hararians lock forward Antipas Kamwindo who had been named as the 23rd player.

Among the thousands who watched the match on Saturday were the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry Walter Mzembi, Kenyan Ambassador to Zimbabwe Lucy Jebet Chemilo and Zimbabwe born ex Springboks prop Brian Mujati.

The Sables are now gearing up for their clash against Tunisia at home on July 4. Mandenge is hoping to beef up his squad with players based in South Africa and the United Kingdom who could not make it for the encounter against Kenya.

The coach yesterday revealed that England-based loose forward Kingsley Lang is not coming back for the game against Tunisia as his schedule is tight while invitations have been extended to other players who were not part of the squad for the Kenya match.