Mandenge defends Lady Cheetahs

Deputy Sports Editor ZIMBABWE women’s rugby coach Cyprian Mandenge has called for more support for the Lady Cheetahs after recently watching his team struggle at the 2023 Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens regional qualifying tournament, which was held in Tunisia between October 14 and 15.

Mandenge, who is just four months into the job, felt the competition had exposed the gulf between his charges and the continent’s heavy hitters.

Zimbabwe lost all their games, going down 26-0 to South Africa and 26-5 to Tunisia before Uganda handed them a 22-0 hiding. Those heavy losses ended their 2024 Olympics qualification dream.

South Africa were the winners and punched their ticket to France.

Kenya and Uganda finished second and third, respectively.

They will now try to qualify via a Repechage tournament.

After losing in the group games, there was still no respite for the Lady Cheetahs, as they also fell to traditional lightweights Madagascar (15-10) and Ghana (10-0) during the placement matches.

“The girls gave it their all really, but again, it all boils down to the issue of preparations,” said Mandenge.

“For a tournament like this, Olympic qualifiers or even a World Cup, which revolve around four-year cycles, we need to start preparing as early as possible.

“For the 2027 Olympics, preparations should start now.

“I have been on the job for like four months now and this is too short a time to prepare . . . “If you look at the other countries, South Africa are now on the HSBC circuit, Kenya and Uganda now have active programmes running. Zambia also have a programme running, while Tunisia are mostly made up of girls based in France and have been training for a while now.”

Mandenge urged the Zimbabwe Rugby Union to establish a league.

“We need to start playing a lot more games, and we need to invest in the Sevens game.

“First of all, our pool of players is still very small. What is a low-hanging fruit for now is to go to the armed forces, recruit from there and also identify talent from other sporting codes.

“The key thing here are preparations. We need a proper programme that will clearly put forth where we want to be and what we want to achieve.

“We need to also play a lot more games.” Lack of game time, he added, ended up being the team’s greatest undoing as they got off to a shaky start in Tunisia but gradually improved as the tournament progressed.

“It is key that we play a lot more games. Like now, there is going to be the Safari Sevens tournament next month and, ideally, we would want to go there,” he said.

“Most of the local women are used to the 15s game, and getting them to understand and adapt requires them to be playing a lot more competitive and high-pressure matches.”

Mandenge hopes to retain the core of his team, search for new talent and nurture some of the budding players.