eBusiness Weekly
Zimbabwe’s Junior Sables have become the crème de la crème of junior rugby in Africa, which has naturally made their 15s side a recon to be forced with as a result of a keen emphasis in developing
Zimbabwe head coach Shawn De Souza has explained what his side have done to become the new dominant force in African junior rugby.
The Junior Sables have won each of the last two Barthes u20 trophies and finished fifth at the just concluded World Rugby u20 trophy, ripping Kenya Chipu 64-10 in the process.
Chipu did well at the 2019 and 2021 Barthes Trophy tournaments, but in 2022, they surrendered the title to Zimbabwe.
It is now the third time in a row that the Sables have whitewashed Chipu, and even more amazingly, all three times have been on Kenya’s own turf.
On top of that, their fifth place finish at the just concluded tournament was their best ever finish in five attempts.
They finished seventh in the 2010 and 2012 editions and bottom last in the 2011 and 2016 ones.
De Souza has revealed the reason why his side have risen to prominence in Africa over the last two years.
“Since the technical team took over, our strategies have come to fruition and they seem to be working,” De Souza said.
“The set up I have put together is a high performance system. All the guys that do A level in the last year of high school come and join the high performance system, come and get involved in the processes and then from there, they make the cut to get into the high performance teams.
“My assistant (Scottie Gray) is the head coach of the U18s team. We have a conveyor belt in that sense. He overlooks what is coming up as I oversee what he does.
“By the time they make the grade to the u20s, we already have an idea of what is coming in our direction.”
The Zimbabwe Rugby Union vice president Martin Shonne says that the side can now graduate the players to the U23 level.
“We are going from strength to strength. We have defended the Barthes trophy and we are the best ranked team in Africa outside South Africa.
“This means that the future is bright for Zimbabwe rugby. There is a grooming crop of players that can move from being u20s to the next level, U23 Gowshawks Sables using the same conveyor belt.”
Shonne has stressed the importance of arranging friendly matches against different sides to keep the side busy, which is in sharp contrast to their Kenyan counterparts who never even took part in friendlies prior to the start of the tournament.
“The upcoming players, we will keep them busy.
“We have to arrange tournaments and friendlies for them to continue playing throughout.” — www.pulsesports.co.ke
