SABLES coach Brendan Dawson admitted that missed tackles and numerous turnovers during broken play cost his team dearly in their 22-7 defeat to Hong Kong in their opening match of the Emirates Airline Cup of Nations XV’s Rugby tournament on Saturday evening.
DANIEL NHAKANISO IN DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Zimbabwe flew out of the blocks to stun the Asians early on and looked on course to victory as they went to the break with a slender 7-6 lead courtesy of a converted try by wing Steven Hunduza. Dawson’s men, however, allowed the Asians to come back into the game in the second half with too many missed tackles and turnover balls during broken play and set pieces.
They were duly punished as a rejuvenated Hong Kong rallied from behind to score a converted try of their own after the breather and three penalties.
In an interview with NewsDay after the match, Dawson said he was under no illusion as to what caused the rout, saying they ultimately paid the price for a series of costly errors after halftime.
“I just think we made too many errors in the second half and gave them too many turnover balls. We also allowed them to get on top of the ball which we could have avoided.”
“We left too many gaps in our defence and our tackling was also not up to scratch as we didn’t manage to make first time tackles. This allowed them to run at us which caused us some problems. Our line outs were also a bit shocking as we are usually strong in that area and these are some of the areas that we will need to work on ahead of our next matches,” Dawson said.
The Sables had chances to claw back into the game, but the usually reliable young flyhalf Lenience Tambwera struggled with his kicking. Two of the penalty chances in the first half were from long range and fell just short, but in the second half he had two close range chances that sailed wide.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Utility back Tommy Nelson took over the kicking duties but watched his shot at goal sail wide from close range.
Ultimately, Zimbabwe were made to pay the price of those missed opportunities.
In contrast, the Hong Kong flyhalf Christopher McAdam was impressive with his boot, slotting over five penalties and a conversion and just missing one spot kick early in the first half.
Dawson said amid the gloom there were still some positives to come out of the test match and his technical team had an opportunity to try new combinations.
The Sables, who were depleted by the absence of many of their Sevens rugby stars, went into the match with a front row comprising uncapped players and a backline lacking in experience.
Zimbabwe play Belgium in their second match at the same venue on Tuesday with the European side’s confidence high after running in 14 tries on their way to a crushing 94-3 over hosts United Arab Emirates.
