Cheetahs in Rio Olympics Qualifiers



By Perkins-Tino Bare

The senior men`s national rugby sevens side the Cheetahs is in Johannesburg for the Rio Olympic qualifiers which are set to start tomorrow. Zimbabwe will battle it out with Kenya, Uganda, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Zambia, Botswana, Madagascar, Mauritius and Morocco for a place at the Olympics.

The top side at the qualifying tournament will join the top four teams from the 2014-2015 HSBC Sevens World Series, as well as Brazil, who qualify automatically as hosts. The runners up will head to another reprive tournament, due to take place before June 2016 which will as well book a place at the tournament.

The tournament is divided into pools of 4 teams each with Pool A headed by top seed Kenya, along with Madagascar, Senegal and Mauritius, while the Cheetahs will line up against Zambia, Uganda and Nigeria in Pool B. Pool C has North African rivals Tunisia and Morocco together with Namibia and Botswana also in that same pool.

The Cheetahs are most likely to aiming to be top of their group whilst Kenya are the favourites going into this tournament. It would be ideal if the Cheetahs could pip Kenya who are most likely going to be in the final and book their place at Rio but sevens rugby has of late become a specialty of the Kenyans themselves. There is also Namibia and Tunisia to speak of as they are slowly starting to break away as well and the Cheetahs will also have to go through them first.

ZRU initially announced a 16 man squad which included the likes of Jacques Leitao and Germany-based winger, Manasah Sita who was ercently recalled to the squad. Cape Town-based loose forward Tapiwa Tsomondo, backs Shayne Makombe, Riaan O’Neill and Lenience Tambwera are also in that squad. The pairing of Njabulo Ndlovu and Biselele Tshamala, who are based in Durban and Western Cape are also expected to reclaimi their positions in that squad as well. Takudzwa Francisco is the surprise uinclusion after having made sevral apperances whilst the absence of newly appointed skipper, Hilton Mudariki, ruled out by injury is expected to have a toll on the team. This then leaves Jacques Leitao with the armband.

Cheetahs coach, Danny Hondo revealed his final 12-man squad for the Olympic qualifiers, featuring that returning duo of Cape Town-based Tapiwa Tsomondo and Germany-based Manasah Sita. The trio of Kuda Chiwanza, Mkhululi Ndlela and Takudzwa Francisco were dropped, while Biselele Tshamala is already in Hong Kong ahead of the Sables Cup of Nations campaign.

Their counterparts the Sables are also currently in Hong Kong for the Cup of Nations featuring hosts Hong Kong, Portugal, Russia and Zimbabwe. This haas seen them having to do with six uncapped players who had playing for the Young Sables as the Olympic Qualifiers take priority.

Sables coach Cyprian Mandenge however revealed that four players Sita, Tafadzwa Chitokwindo, Stephan Hunduza and Riaan O’Neil, will join the Sables squad in Hong Kong after playing for the national Sevens side, the Cheetahs, in the Rio Olympic qualifiers in South Africa on Saturday and Sunday. This rules them out for the Sables’ opening match of the Hong Kong Cup of Nations against the hosts today but they should be available for the Sables’ second match against Russia on November 17 and the last match against Portugal on 21 November.

The Cheetahs are confident of making that qualification as Tafadzwa Chitokwindo was bullyish in his interview with newday`s Daniel Nhakanhiso, “The guys are in great spirits and everyone seems to be hyped up for the weekend,” he said in that interview. “With the squad that has been assembled and the level we have been playing our Sevens, it’s only a matter of putting both our hearts and heads in the goal. “As far as the preparations are concerned, I believe we have prepared as best as we could have hoped. We managed to have our four-day camp at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria, which has world class facilities. The boys couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

The Cheetahs will become the second Zimbabwean team to qualify for the flagship event runiing from August 5 to 21 after the Mighty Warriors who made their historic qualification just a few weeks back.

Cheetahs final squad: Jacques Leitao (captain), Boyd Rouse, Shayne Makombe, Njabulo Ndlovu, Tapiwa Tsomondo, Stephan Hunduza, Graham Kaulback, Lenience Tambwera, Tafadzwa Chitokwindo, Kilvan Magunje, Manasah Sita, Rian O’Neill

*all data used in the compilation of this article was taken from newsday`s daniel nhakaniso articles

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scott Vincent to Tee-Off with The Masters Champion

Image
Zimbabwe’s top ranked amateur golfer Scott Vincent is set to tee off with the recently crowned Masters champion Jordan Spieth who was crowned at Augustus this past weekend. the two are set to go head to head this upcoming weekend as they battle it out in the RBC Heritage Classic on April 16-20 at the Harbour Town Golf Links at Sea Pines Plantation in Hilton Head, South Carolina. This will be a chance for Scott Vincent to turn pro and speaking on the tourney in an interview the humble Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University senior was quick to rubbish any expectations as he dismissed anything big saying that to him this was an opportunity to learn from the best. "Don't set expectations too high and just soak every bit of what there is to soak in on the PGA Tour." Speaking on his chances in the tournament he went on to add, "I'm just here to learn," he said. "Hopefully I'll be back in a few years' time." Vincent was quick
Read more

ZC Heartbreak Can it Get Any Worse?

Image
Perkins-Tino Bare “I played too much cricket in my life to fall back now on ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybes’ so, like the players, I will accept that we were not good enough. One win in six matches is immense disappointment. The future might be bleak, with qualification almost certainly required for the next ICC Cricket World Cup, and ZC facing a battle to attract fixtures in the short and medium term, either home or away, the players will need to embrace the fact that their futures lie in their hands” , Alastair Campbell told standard sport. So as our boys left the center stage back into the dark, gloomy background of ZC to most it was more of the same, `so close yet so far` but this time it was different the guys represented us quite well during the course of the whole tournament despite leaving with just one victory and one would be tempted to agree that if Dav Whatmore is to get more time with the team he is to build he should therefore build a formidable side indeed. This t
Read more

Third-Time Luck for the Cheetahs?

Image
Perkins-Tino Bare The Zimbabwe sevens` rugby team the Cheetahs got their battle this morning to a flying satart as they beat Guyana 36-0, as they seek that much coveted HSBC core statusover this weekend in Hong Kong as they play in the Qualifiers which would determine the core member status of the winner of the round of fixtures. The Cheetahs who could have not asked for better preparations as they got the chance to train with the World`s best in the South African Side the Blitzebokke at their world-class University of Stellenbosch training facilities om South Africa go into this series with their heads held high as is left to do on the pitch as this time the administrators have outdone their part and its now left to the players to prove their worth. The Cheetahs kicked off their campaign in what would be their third attempt with an assignment bytharshing Guyan 36-0 and they will take on Tonga two hours later which would wrap up their encounters for the day. The encou
Read more