The Sunday Mail
Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Cheetahs were handed a tough task when the draw for the World Rugby Sevens Repechage tournament was held on Tuesday.
The Cheetahs, who are currently on a Rugby Africa Solidarity training camp in Stellenbosch, South Africa, have been placed in Pool A alongside Samoa, Ireland, Tonga and Mexico.
Samoa and Ireland are two core teams of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, with the latter finishing third in the 1997 and 2009 editions.
Pool B will comprise of Uganda, France, Chile, Hong Kong and Jamaica.
Monaco is set to host the tournament – the final qualification event for the 2020 Olympics – at the Stade Louis II.
The competition, slated for June 19 to June 20, will be played in a round-robin format.
Two top teams from each pool will advance to two knockout stages.
The winner of the competition will then qualify for the Olympics, joining the likes of hosts Japan, New Zealand, Fiji, United States of America, South Africa, Kenya, Australia, Canada, Argentina, South Korea and Great Britain.
With sport having been put on hold for much of the last one-and-half years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Cheetahs only got together shortly before departure for South Africa.
And the rust in the team showed as they struggled on the opening weekend of the camp.
Coach Daniel Hondo’s men were beaten 24-0 by Kenya, lost 28-10 to the South Africa Rugby Sevens Academy, before they were hammered 29-7 by the South African first team.
After the Repechage draw was confirmed on Tuesday, the Cheetahs now know what they will be up against in their bid to be at the grand stage which the Olympics brings.
Should they make the cut from this tough round of qualifiers, the Cheetahs would have emulated the Class of 2018 under Gilbert Nyamutsamba, who featured at the World Cup in San Francisco in the United States.
