Cheetah’s dream
AFTER conquering the continent, courtesy of their Africa Cup title win, the Zimbabwe Cheetahs will finally get their chance to dance with the big boys when they travel to the United Arab Emirates next month.
The Cheetahs have been placed in pool A where potential high octane clashes against South Africa’s BlitzBoks, Argentina and Samoa awaits them at the Dubai Sevens Tournament slated for November 29-December 1.
And no one is looking forward to the tournament more than Cheetahs’ talisman Tafadzwa Chitokwindo.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better draw,” said the German-based Sevens star.
“The World Series was always going to be a tough task, no matter which group we were placed in or which team we drew up but what we have here is an opportunity.
“All these teams play professional rugby day in and day out, week in and week out, so as a semi-professional outfit, we have an opportunity to test our mantle against some of the best sevens teams in the world.
“South Africa, as you might know, is one the best sevens team in the world and will surely go into the tournament as one of the favourites.
“We have played Samoa before, a couple of times, and that physicality versus speed battle will be beneficiary for both sides.
“Argentina play a similar game to South Africa, albeit with less flair, which should also make for an interesting encounter,” he said.
Chitokwindo views the team’s performance in Tunisia, earlier this month, as an eye-opening experience and believes the lessons learnt from their Africa Cup campaign could help them in their cause for an upset or two come match day.
“One of the biggest takeaways from the Africa Cup, for me, was heart counts for a lot,” Chitokwindo.
“We didn’t have the best preparations in the run-up to the tournament, but we managed to get the job done.
“We had a positive mind-set going to Tunisia and took that to the park as we won all our five games.
“More so, we showed great character in the semi-finals, where we came back from a 19-nil deficit and went on to not only win that game, but the final too.
“All this with a man short, inadequate preparations, a few regulars missing and many other obstacles standing in our way,” he said.
On a personal note, Chitokwindo, himself long regarded as the fastest player in the team, is looking forward to sharing the pitch with two young upcoming speedsters in Shingirai Katsvere and Shingirai Hlanguyo.
“The two Shingis have come a long way and I believe we are now reaping the rewards of their sweat and hard work.
“Shingi (Katsvere) is a back line player playing with the forwards and I think his mere presence gives us that extra edge and new dimension.
“Now we can play with two speedsters at both ends of the pitch. This is a tactic we should invest more in.
“Hlanguyo is arguably the fastest of the three of us given the times he has been running of late, and it will be interesting to see how he fares on the bigger stage,” he said.