Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Paul Munyuki
16 May 2008
Harare — ZIMBABWE Sevens assistant coach Gilbert Nyamutsamba believes the Cheetahs played well despite losing in the plate final at the Tangiers Sevens in Morocco.
Zimbabwe -- who lost 17-19 to South France Select in the final -- were in the same pool with Morocco and Tunisia.
The Cheetahs won their first game 28-0 against the hosts before losing 35-5 to Tunisia.
This meant that the Cheetahs finished second in the pool and they went on to play South Africa's Emerging Springboks losing 7-21 before beating Senegal 28-0 on their way to the Plate final.
"The players did well given the fact that there were a number of our regular players from the usual squad missing," he said.
Some of the regular players who did not travel were Cleopas Makotose, Tangai Nemadire, Wesley Mbanje and Gardner Nechironga due to injuries while Gerald Sibanda was denied permission by his club in South Africa.
The side left Harare on Wednesday for Johannesburg where they caught a connecting flight to Dubai before getting another plane to Casablanca where they travelled for another four hours by road.
"The travelling plan did not favour us at all. We had a one and a half flight to Jo'burg, eight hours to Dubai, another eight to Casablanca before we went on a four hour road trip to the hotel.
"We arrived at the hotel at about 10 in the night and our first game was the following morning at 11am so we did not have enough time to rest."
Another factor that could have affected the Cheetahs was that they didn't camp for this tournament. The England-based duo of Daniel Hondo and Roland Benade had to join the rest of the team in Morocco. "Danny (Hondo) got injured in the second game against Tunisia and we on to lose that game but before his injury we were holding them and it was 50-50.
"That was a turning point in our game because most of the players were not experienced and they were looking up to Hondo who is one of the most experienced in the team."
Also absent was England-based coach Liam Middleton who was attending an International Rugby Board Level III coaching course at the weekend and Nyamutsamba had to take over.
"I would not say that we took with us a depleted side but rather a youthful side and they did well, more than what I was actually expecting.
"I was not under pressure taking the guys to Morocco because I have done that before having taken the boys to Kenya and Zambia," said Nyamutsamba.
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