BY SPORTSCAST WRITER
HARARE – Zimbabwe assistant coach Ricky Chirengende says being defending champions doesn’t guarantee an easy pathway for the Sables in this year’s Rugby Africa Cup, whose winner will clinch direct qualification to the 2027 World Cup in Australia.
Zimbabwe won their second African title last year in Ugandan capital Kampala, and back-to-back triumph in the same city in July will see the Sables return to the World Cup for the first time since 1991.
The eight-team Africa Cup begins at the quarter-final stage, with the Sables opening their campaign in Pool A against Morocco, who earned promotion to the top division this past Sunday after beating North African rivals Tunisia 26-12 in a second-tier playoff final in Casablanca.
The winner of that first Pool A match will proceed to the semi-finals against the victorious team from a potentially explosive quarter-final clash between hosts Uganda and their rival neighbours Kenya.
While the in-form Zimbabweans will start as favourites against Morocco, on top of being widely tipped to reach the final, Chirengende has predicted tough competition throughout the Sables’ three Tests in Kampala.
“Recently we watched Morocco play in the (play-off) final against Tunisia, obviously they are a well-structured team so it’ll be a tough game for us,” Chirengende told SportsCast on Tuesday.
“I don’t think there will be any easy game really, at the Africa Cup, it’s a World Cup qualifier so everyone is preparing accordingly and they are throwing everything they can into it. So ja, Morocco will be a nice challenge first up, they are quite a physical team, you know, they will obviously offer some challenges which we are obviously trying to prepare for. For us, it’s one game at a time. That Morocco game is a final at this stage (of the tournament) because if we can’t get through that we’re not going to get any World Cup qualification chances. So that’s the biggest game at the moment, before we even think of Kenya or Uganda, worse off the final.”
35-year-old Chirengende has been observing the pre-tournament activity of the other nations with keen interest, and knows the task at hand for the Sables.
“We’ve seen everyone investing, Uganda recently announced that they’ve beefed up their technical team with (South African) Nollis Marais from the Bulls,” commented Chirengende.
“That’s just shows how serious everyone is towards these qualifiers and I think we are no exception, we’re also taking it quite seriously. We’ve started our work, our guys have been in the gym, twice a week, and obviously on the field, twice a week as well with clubs, and one national team session at the moment. So we are training on Wednesdays, and then guys go to their clubs or they are in the gym.”
The youthful Chirengende is right-hand man to 42-year-old head coach Piet Benade in a Zimbabwe technical department that also enjoys the support of a three-man South African consultant set-up led by former Springbok assistant coach Gert Smal.
After winning all three games to lift the Africa Cup in Uganda last year, Zimbabwe went on to defeat the United Arab Emirates and South Korea on an end-of-year tour of the Middle East and Asia, to complete a 100 percent five-Test match record in the year.
As part of both countries’ preparations for the 2027 World Cup bid, the UAE will make a reciprocal tour of Zimbabwe for a single Test match in Harare on 24 May.
Remarked Chirengende: “Preparations have been good and ja, we are going to look to have a few games leading up to June, some regional games against Botswana and Zambia and then obviously looking forward to host the UAE a they look to retain the favour and come down to us to just build up towards that crucial July month and then hopefully we can then qualify for the World Cup.”
