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Innocent Kurira, [email protected]

THE Junior Sables will troop into camp this morning as they intensify their preparations for this year’s edition of the Rugby Africa Barthes Trophy tournament to be held in Harare this  month. 

The event is set to run from April 18 to April 29, with matches scheduled for April 20, 24, and 28 at the Old Georgians Sports Club in Zimbabwe. 

Only four teams will compete in this year’s edition, namely Zimbabwe, Tunisia, Namibia and Kenya.

Junior Sables coach, Shaun De Souza says he will be announcing his final 28-man squad for the tournament next week.

“We will be starting our camp tomorrow (today). On Saturday the team will play against Zimbabwe A, in what will be our final preparatory game before the announcement of the final  squad. 

“We are still trying to work on our combinations and the attitude throughout all the preparations has been encouraging,” said De Souza. 

Zimbabwe is the defending champion of the competition and De Souza says it gives them more pressure going into the tournament as favourites.

“We are going to be playing at home and also, we are the defending champions, which gives us pressure to perform well. But what we have done is, we have brought in some mental coaches to make sure that we are mentally strong to overcome the pressure, which comes with this tournament, so that we can perform at our best,” said De Souza. 

The winner of the tournament will secure qualification for the 2024 World Rugby Under-20 Trophy, the 14th edition of the second-tier age-grade rugby competition.

This year, the tournament will be held in Scotland for the first time, specifically at the 7,800-capacity Edinburgh Rugby Stadium in Edinburgh.

At the Barthes Trophy, on Match Day One, Kenya will face off against Tunisia in the early kick-off, while Zimbabwe will take on Tunisia in the late kick-off. Match day two will witness Kenya U20, also known as Chipu, going head-to-head against Tunisia, while Zimbabwe will face off against Namibia.

During the third day of matches, Namibia will battle Tunisia, and Zimbabwe is set to play against Kenya. Zimbabwe Under-20s secured victory in the last two editions, notably defeating Kenya 28-7 in the final at Nyayo Stadium in 2023.

Fixtures

Matchday 1 20 April

Kenya vs Tunisia 2pm

Zimbabwe vs Tunisia

Matchday 2 24 April

Kenya vs Tunisia 2pm

Zimbabwe vs Namibia 4pm

Matchday 3 Sunday 28

Namibia vs Tunisia 2pm

Zimbabwe vs Kenya 4pm

—@innocentskizoe