The Zimbabwe Women's Sevens rugby team are not intimidated when they take on Africa's best ranked team, South Africa in the opening match of the 2016 Rugby Africa Women's 7s.

Zimbabwe captain Charity Mucucuti said they are unfazed by South Africa's status as the number one ranked nation in Africa as they are equally talented and have the pedigree to match the best teams on the continent

“We are not worried about playing South Africa in the first match, actually its them who should be afraid of us. We are playing at home and have the backing of the home supporters which is a plus for us," said Mucucuti.

“I am calling on Zimbabweans to come out in numbers and support us. With supporters calling out our names it’s motivation (for us) and intimidating to the opponents. Obviously we want to win this tournament in front of our supporters and we have been preparing hard for that," she added.

The Zimbabwean team has been in camp for almost two months preparing for the tournament while their opponents South Africa relinquished  their Olympics berth to second placed Kenya.

South Africa's captain Lorranda Brown was cautious ahead of the clash saying Zimbabwe have a fairer advantage since they are playing at home but is confident that they will win the tournament.

“Zimbabwe are playing at home and will have home advantage but we are not giving in to that. We are coming into this tournament to win it. We want to start in this match against Zimbabwe," said Brown.

The match starts at 11: am at Police grounds in Harare on Saturday.

The Tournament gets underway on Saturday ending on Sunday with South Africa, Madagascar, Tunisia, Namibia, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe taking part.