BY SPORTSCAST WRITER
CAPE TOWN – Zimbabwe rugby coach Brendan Dawson has praised his team for picking up its first win of the Currie Cup, but admitted to some weaknesses in the side after Kenya nearly stole a last-gasp victory.
Dawson’s men led fellow African national teams comfortably in the second half before allowing the Simbas to claw back and camp in the Zimbabweans 22 for the past 10 minutes of the game, and felt disappointed to lose 22-21 in the end.
“Yeah, it was a great win,” said Dawson. “We fought for 21 phases and to secure the victory was great testimony to how the guys committed themselves to the game. We are very happy with the win, and obviously beating Kenya is always a massive target of ours.”
Dawson, however, acknowledged some areas which resulted in Kenya’s strong fightback, commenting that they will be rectified for the rest of the tournament.
“Obviously, we have some massive work to do at breakdown area, I felt we were not accurate enough, not so clinical as I want us to be. The timing of the breakdowns, the timing of the ball coming out we have to work on that. And obliviously a bit more on the scrummaging, I felt we allowed the Kenyans to hold themselves where we could have worked them a little more. And obviously also the line-outs, we need to be a little more clinical too.”
The Zimbabweans, who are playing in the Currie Cup’s second-tier competition, play Boland next on Saturday.
