Sables Off to Madagascar

The Herald 31.05.2002

Petros Kausiyo

ZIMBABWE'S Sables are scheduled to fly out of Harare early this morning to get their 2003 Rugby World Cup campaign underway with a tricky assignment against unpredictable Madagascar in Antananarivo on Sunday.

The Sables wound up their preparations for the crucial encounter with an afternoon training session under the watchful eye of coach Godwin Murambiwa at Old Hararians Sports Club yesterday.

Murambiwa and skipper Victor Olonga were, however, confident of defying the windy conditions of the Indian Ocean Island and start their qualification bid on wining note. Murambiwa said his charges had everything they needed to do in terms of their preparations and believed they were in the right mental and physical frame to overcome Madagascar.

"The morale in the camp is high, nobody is talking about the political problems that have been troubling Madagascar and they are all focussed.

"Basically we should just win this match if we want to avoid putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure.

"I firmly believe that we should win the qualifiers for ourselves and not bank on other teams to do it for us which means we have to beat Madagascar away and then Namibia at home even if it is by just a single point," said Murambiwa.

The stocky coach also had his team's preparations boosted by the arrival of seasoned centre Ian Noble, hooker Justin Buchanan, flyhalf Sean Smit and eighthman Phil Carter, who are expected to team up with Olonga in providing the leading light for the Sables.

Murambiwa said although Zimbabwe were odds on favourites to sail past Madagascar they could not afford to make mistakes as the Indian Ocean islanders could surprise them.

Olonga, who plies his trade with British outfit Penzance and Newlyns, also concurred with his coach and said the Sables would only remain strong on paper until the match was over.

"The players have worked hard and the coach has put emphasis on fitness and we have spoken about our approach and the difficulties we are likely to face in Madagascar.

"Although we looked scrappy in our last match against Uganda, the combinations are coming up well and the arrival of other professionals has brought an extra dimension and we have got more to choose from now.

"We cannot afford to underestimate Madagascar, they surprised Kenya and Cameroon in the early stages of the qualifiers and that shows that their game is improving.

"They have to be respected because they seem to have come through the process very well," said Olonga. He, however, said the Sables were aware that nothing short of victory would be acceptable to their fans and, "if we want to get right to the top we have to face all the obstacles, whether hard or easy".

The Sables, hoping to win the Southern African zone, will host old enemies Namibia in another qualifier in Bulawayo on June 29.

The winner of the of the sole Southern African ticket would go on to play the winner of the North Zone in the final qualifier for a place at next year's World Cup finals in Australia.