In a press release , Zimbabwe Rugby Union blamed complacency in their 23 all draw match against Morocco which was an opener of this year Rugby Africa Gold Cup and hopes are still high that they still have a chance to qualify for the Japan 2019 World Cup qualifiers as they take on Kenya away at the RFUEA Ground on Saturday 30 June 2018.
The opener was Peter De Villiers first competitive match since taking on the Zimbabwean job.”Zimbabwe are rejuvenated under new coach, PDV, who has an impressive curriculum vitae that includes winning the Tri-Nations tournament as Springboks coach in 2009 in which New Zealand and Australia were the other teams for the Boks to beat.Morocco, on the other hand , were an unknown quantity, as they had not featured in Gold Cup since in 2017 and videos of any of their recent games were not online at all”, read the press release.
For their second match in the Rugby Africa Gold Cup Zimabawe has an upperhand although they will be away. Since first meeting in 1981, Kenya and Zimbabwe have shared some great, memorable moments on the rugby pitch. This rivalry will be reignited on Saturday when the Simbas host the Sables at Nairobi’s RFUEA Ground.The Sables will be banking on coach PDV’s expertise.Overall, the two sides have met 19 times with Zimbabwe’s Sables dominating the head to head, posting 12 wins to the Simbas 7.
Simba Head Coach Ian Snook expects Zimbabwe to pose a different kind of challenge when the two sides face off in Rugby Africa Gold Cup action on the weekend.
Speaking at a news conference to unveil his match day 23 on Thursday morning, Snook said, “Zimbabwe bring a different challenge in that they are a fast, speedy side on the outside and are big and strong upfront. They’ll pose a slightly different challenge to what we had in Morocco. We are anticipating a fairly strong game from them.”
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