The national Under-19 rugby team’s head coach Brighton Chivandire will on Monday name his final squad for the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, in June.
This follows the Young Sables’ recent tour of South Africa where they played and lost against Mpumalanga-based age group club sides Pumas Under-20 and Leopards Under-20.
The Young Sables narrowly lost the first match 28-24 to the Pumas before being hammered 88-3 by a Mpumalanga Select side in the second match. In an interview with NewsDay Sport yesterday after his team’s arrival from South Africa on Wednesday evening, Chivandire said they would name a squad of 38 players inclusive of the six non-travelling reserves.
The Young Sables’ technical department comprises of Chivandire, his assistant Goodwin Murambiwa and the strength and conditioning coach and scrummaging expert, South African Nico de Villiers.
“We were using it as a trial tour to assess the players and see if they could compete against quality teams. I’m happy to say the tour gave the technical department the best opportunity to assess the team as we were playing against very strong sides,” Chivandire said.
“We are now in a position to finalise the squad and we will be meeting on Monday after which we will name a final team of 32 players and six non-travelling reserves. Thereafter, we will meet for our final camp on May 27 before departing on the first of June.”
The Young Sables will have another training camp in France to fine-tune their preparations ahead of the tournament from June 18-30. The former Sables coach said he was happy with the performance of some of the players during the tour, particularly in the first match.
“Obviously some players responded very well and proved that they can really be competitive against good opposition, especially in the first match. On the other hand, some were just not up to the standard we expected, but everyone was given a chance to prove themselves,” said Chivandire.
