Zimbabwe sights set on JWRT 2013 place

Young Sables coach Brighton Chivandire is cautious ahead of their defence of the Confédération Africane de Rugby (CAR) Under 19 Championship, which gets under way at Prince Edward School in Harare on Saturday.

Hosts Zimbabwe will battle it out with Tunisia, Kenya and former champions Namibia in Pool A for the right to represent Africa at the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy in Chile next year and Chivandire believes any of these teams are capable of claiming the title.

“There is no side that we should take lightly because all of the three teams we are going to play are capable of winning and have one thing in common and that is dethroning Zimbabwe from the top so it is us against the rest,” Chivandire said.

However, despite being cautious, Zimbabwe have a strong squad that includes several players from the squad that finished seventh of eight teams at the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy 2012 in Salt Lake City, USA, in June.

Captain and second row Joshua Smallbones, loose forwards Tapiwa Tsomondo, Tawanda Chowe and Matthew Lawson, props Kudakwashe Makuvire and Thabani  Ndaba and scrum half Robert Sargeant were all part of the Zimbabwe Under 20 squad that won one and lost three matches in the USA.

Zimbabwe are also banking on former Under 18 and Prince Edward fly half Luke Masasire, who is expected to join the camp on Friday after arriving from Australia where he was part of the Zimbabwe ICC U19 Cricket World Cup.