Young Sables coach Bob Mahari high in his priority in trying to rebuild a sound rugby future is making sure he instils a player culture that makes his players believe they are better than Namibia.

The Under-20 side on Saturday blew a number of chances to surrender the lead and lost 42-29 to Namibia in the Junior Africa Cup final in Windhoek, but the Churchill Bulldogs assistant coach feels his first assignment was all about building a base for next year.

“We are trying to build a culture that has players who believe and feel that they can be equally good and even better than Namibia and this has to start at the junior level before the boys get to the senior team (Sables).

“We have the talent, and we have to portray it rather than looking at ourselves with an inferiority complex. Of course we had less of preparation compared to the Namibians but if anything we had less of everything,” said the former Young Sables assistant coach.

Going into the break, Zimbabwe were 17-14 leaders but it was towards the end that things turned around for Mahari and his boys.

“To be frank we had a lot of chances but we blew them away. With 12 minutes to go we were leading but then we knocked, they won the scrum, kicked and that resulted into a try,” said Mahari.

But it was not all about the chances they threw away as Mahari feels there could have been another hand at play.

“That we got a Namibian ref didn’t help matters either. There were some decisions that I was not happy with. However, I am happy that we were better conditioned than the hosts, we kept them on their toes throughout the game.”