shloboe boe
Brandon Moyo, brandonmalvin9@gmail.com
JUNIOR Sables head coach, Shaun De Souza, has shed light on the rigorous selection process used to narrow down the number of players chosen for the prestigious Nedbank Grassroots to Greatness Programme.
Following nationwide trials, the initial pool of 220 talented young players was carefully trimmed to a final 110.
In an exclusive interview with Mega Clips Media at Harare Sports Club, De Souza outlined the key criteria used to identify the top performers.
He said they were looking for specific skills and attributes that would enable the selected players to excel in the programme.
“It was an open trial from across the country. It was to identify the best players from those who participated in the trials.
“We just identified the cream and from there we took a positional-based criterion. Some players from smaller provinces may call themselves ‘props’, but for the standard we need for the Under-20 Junior Sables, the prop has to have a certain weight, so some of those players by default were eliminated from that position.
“There are certain skill sets that we look at, attributes that we identify based on the positions, and that also helped us come up with this 110-man squad,” said De Souza.
He said the Grassroots to Greatness Programme will be used to feed into the Junior Sables team.
“In essence, we should call it a two-year cycle. The cycle will be repeated every year and essentially involve a Junior Sables team and a High-Performance Grassroots to Greatness team, with both teams running concurrently.
“Basically, it’s putting pressure on the Junior Sables squad and giving players in the Grassroots to Greatness Programme an opportunity to develop and hopefully become Junior Sables the following year,” he said.
Last year, the Junior Sables suffered a disappointing 13-28 loss to Kenya in the final of the Barthes Trophy in Harare.
De Souza said the defeat was also a motivator behind the high-performance programme following three consecutive title wins.
“It was a tough pill to swallow losing that game at home after all the work we had put in. It was a hard blow for us.
“Initiating this programme was based on that result, and it helped us dig deeper to prepare mentally and physically,” he said.
Once he has his core team, some scrimmage games will be held against the Outback Barbarians on March 19, followed by the traditional Nedbank Challenge Cup, provisionally slated for March 22 and 29.
The Junior Sables are expected to play two test matches against a Zimbabwe A side after which De Souza hopes to announce his Barthes Trophy squad in April, and his Junior World Squad 30-man squad in July. – @brandon_malvin
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