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Mehluli Sibanda in Cape Town, South Africa 

THERE was elation when they scored first, but the joy was short-lived as the Zimbabwe Cheetahs suffered a 31-7 defeat against Canada in a pre-Round of 16 Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 match in South Africa at the Cape Town Stadium yesterday.

 Defeat for the Kudzai Mashawi captained Cheetahs means their interest in the main competition is over as they have been relegated to the bowl quarterfinals where they face Hong Kong in an early kick off this morning.

 The other teams in the bowl quarterfinals are Uganda, Portugal, Jamaica, Tonga, Korea and Germany.   Zimbabwe, making their sixth appearance at the Rugby World Cup Sevens, came into the tournament with high expectations and started off the match brightly when Godfrey Magaramombe put them in the lead with a try from a quick tap after the Cheetahs were awarded a penalty five metres out. Ryan Musumhi booted in the conversion for Zimbabwe to lead 7-0.

The Cheetahs managed to keep Canada in their own half for the better part of the first half but when the Canadians did make a foray into the Zimbabwean 50m line, they crossed the line twice, with both tries converted to give the North Americans a 14-7 halftime lead.

 Canada, who also gave a run to former Zimbabwe Under-18 captain Matthew Owuru, showed the huge gulf between them and the Cheetahs when they stretched their advantage in the second half.  Canada extended their lead to 21-7 with a converted try. They made it try number four, but missed the conversion to take their lead to 26-7. The Canadians were not done, with a fifth try and an unsuccessful conversion making it 31-7 and that is how it ended. 

 Mashawi felt that the match was there for the taking and believes that they lost it due to a failure to defend well. 

 “This was there for the taking, when it’s a stage like this you need to bring your “A” game, definitely from start we had a good start but I guess we just fell off, that’s the difference between seasoned teams and when you come to a tournament like this, you need to make sure that you are on your a game all the time,’’ remarked Mashawi.

 “The game was open, 50-50, we just needed to make sure that we stay disciplined in our systems, do our basics and make sure that we are there. We are in the bowl, we just have to take each game now as it goes and keep on making those ticks on our boxes,’’ added the Cheetahs skipper.  On not being able to progress to the round of 16, Mashawi pointed out that while that is disappointing, the team is still steadfast in wanting to do their country proud in the remaining matches. 

 “You always want to play against the big dogs, this is what it takes, we need to be up there all the time, if you don’t do that, then that’s where you will be. We obviously take this tournament as a growth, we got here, we have sheer determination, it’s out of the cup for us but we still have games to play and make sure that we come here and represent our nation well,’’ he said.

 Zimbabwe will be hoping to win against Hong to enhance their chances of finishing in a better position outside the top 16. At the last Rugby World Cup Sevens held in San Francisco, United States of America in 2018, Zimbabwe finished 23 out of 24 men’s teams, only better than Jamaica.