Peterhouse College are not looking down on themselves after a see-saw rugby season that ended on July 30 with a 11-26 defeat to Prince Edward in Harare.

Instead Peterhouse Kings coach and former Sables and Old Georgians captain, Dave Kirkman, says they will be touring New Zealand this month to prepare for their next rugby season.

He attributed their unfavourable results this year to a spate of injuries that affected his team, culminating in a concussion suffered by flanker Ronald Mbirimi who was ferried away by an ambulance at the close of their tough encounter against PE at Jubilee Field.

"We are still building our team and giving a chance to as many players as possible. For each game we played this year we had about six players out due to injury. We thus never got to play our best and as you could see PE completely outplayed us in this game,'' Kirkman told Suburban.

As if to dramatise the effect of injuries, Peterhouse travelled to Prince Edward with four players walking on crutches and two in arm-slings who all followed the action from the sidelines.

Kirkman, who is assisted by a Sables great Andy Ferreira, said he would carry along 26 players to New Zealand as a reward for their resilience this season as a number of them had stepped up from the reserves to take up the place vacated by the injured players.

"I think the NZ tour that runs from 15 August to 2 September will revitalise our team and give us strength again going into next season. The boys will play a series of games against four teams and also get to watch the big game between the All Blacks and Australia's Wallabies.

"That exposure is geared to work wonders in them and we should come back a changed side. Otherwise with so many injuries it was difficult to keep the momentum. What I can say for next year is 'just watch this space'. ''

Centre Hugh Meikle was the sole scorer for Peterhouse in their game against PE, claiming six points with his boot and one unconverted try.