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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
INEXPERIENCE was the Cheetahs’ biggest undoing in the Olympic Repechage tournament in Monaco, but a lot of positives were picked up from the tournament, according to Zimbabwe Rugby Union vice-president Martin Shone.

The Olympic Repechage tournament in Monaco offered the final chance for sevens’ rugby teams to qualify for the Tokyo Games next month.

The Zimbabwe Sevens’ national team side finished fifth in the Tokyo Olympics Qualifying tournament, which Shone feels was a huge achievement for a team full of inexperienced players.

There had been an outcry over the omission of Cheetahs’ captain Stephan Hunduza which resulted in senior players pulling out in solidarity.

Most of the squad players that traveled to Monaco had never played this version of the game at international level and the senior players believed that Hunduza got a raw deal, especially after taking time off their busy schedules to commit to the Solidarity Camp that was held in South Africa last month.

However, Kudzai Mashawi, Ryan Musumhi, Sam Phiri, Godknows Mavara were listed among the best performers in the Monaco tournament and Shone said they had done well given the opposition they faced.

“I believe the team did well considering this is a new team. These boys are for the future. What we did was to sit and say with a long period of inactivity, what would be the best way forward and we settled for a new young side.

“Obviously, we would have loved to win, but we were in a tough group and the boys did well to hold their own. There is talk of why we did not go with an experienced side, but look, with experience you need to be playing to get it and this is what these boys are getting from such competitions. They will soon be an experienced team,” said Shone.

The Cheetahs got off to a good start in the competition by whitewashing Mexico 21-0 in their tournament opener on Friday and then fell to Ireland 10-31 and 7-33 to Samoa to exit the tournament.

The young Cheetahs, however, finished their Pool A and tournament on a high note by beating Tonga 26-17 on Sunday.

Ireland were crowned champions in the men’s tournament in Monaco, while France and Russia were the two women’s sides that booked their tickets for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. — @innocentskizoe