ZIMBABWE national sevens rugby team coach Gilbert Nyamutsamba has set his sights on winning the inaugural Kwese Sports Victoria Falls Sevens to be played at Victoria Falls Primary School on Saturday and Sunday.

Speaking at Hartsfield Rugby Ground in Bulawayo on Tuesday before the team’s departure for Victoria Falls where they will start training on Wednesday morning, Nyamutsamba said while they aspire to be champions of the eight-team event, their eyes are firmly set on the Africa Cup in November to be held in a yet to be named country which will serve as the 2018 Sevens Rugby World Cup qualifier. The top two Africans teams from the November tournament will book a place in San Francisco, United States of America.

“We going to win the tournament, that’s our target, we going there to target to win the tournament but at the same time if we do achieve on one of the objectives whereby we get to identify and to actually see exactly going forward what we need to work per player and as a team, I would have done half the job but winning is our main target,’’ said Nyamutsamba.

While the preparations for Zimbabwe has not been the most ideal with two groups of players, one fine tuning in Bulawayo and the other in Harare, Nyamutsamba believes the stiff competition for jerseys should spur his team to match up to teams like Namibia who are better prepared.

One of the senior players Boyd Rouse said they were looking forward to put up their best performance for the team and country in Victoria Falls. What excites Rouse is the presence of new faces in the team which increases the competition for places.

“We are looking to achieve firm stability looking to get our names out there and get noticed by coaches, we are all going out to perform our best as a team for the country so definitely looking to put our best performances this weekend, we are leading up to the bigger thing next year, this weekend we looking to see what players we have what talent is coming through, there is a lot of new faces this weekend which is exciting,’’ said Rouse.

Nyamutsamba has named five South Africa based players, these being Cheetahs skipper Hilton Mudariki, Biselele Tshamala, Brian Dube, Mkhululi Ndlela and the seasoned Gardner Nechironga. Dube, Ndlela and Nechironga left with the players from Bulawayo, Mudariki flies into Victoria Falls on Wednesday while Tshamala arrives a day later.

Zimbabwe is fielding three teams at the tournament, Cheetahs, Goshawks and President’s VII. This was necessitated by the withdrawal of Sierra Leone. Botswana and Zambia are sending two teams with Namibia bringing just one side. 

The Cheetahs make up Group A together with Namibia, Botswana and Zambia A while Group B has Zambia, President’s VII, Goshawks and Botswana A. Besides the seniors, there will also be Under-19 boys on display with Petra, Mbare Academy, Goromonzi, Hwange, Plumtree and Bulawayo taking to the field of play on both days.

@Mdawini_29