Online Reporter
Tinashe Kusema-Zimpapers Sports Hub
THE year 2025 offers different prospects for Zimbabwe rugby coaches Piet Benade and Shaun De Souza and their respective national teams.
Benade has the biggest of the tasks, with the spotlight falling on the former Zimbabwe international, as he seeks to become the first Sables coach since 1991 to take the country to the World Cup showpiece.
With his Sables having been crowned African champions at the end of 2024, Benade is looking forward to the new year with hope and optimism.
Apart from the joy of conquering old foes Namibia on his way to leading the Sables to the Africa Cup success, Benade also had the joy of seeing a surge in Zimbabwe’s diaspora talent, including Ian Prior and Kyle Godwin, retrace their steps back home.
“Yes, 2024 was fortunately a very positive year,” Benade said.
“The Africa Cup campaign in Uganda was probably the pinnacle, but also we worked hard to get our sides out to Manicaland and Bulawayo to play matches in the provinces that have not seen their local teams up against the top players in the country in many years.”
The Africa Cup success remains the biggest notable achievement for the Sables as it now puts them in good stead going into next year’s edition, which will double as the 2027 Rugby World Cup qualifier.
A double for Sables will grant them automatic qualification into the quadrennial tournament, while a runners-up slot only gives them a second chance to qualify through the equally tough repechage tournament route. Still, Benade expects the same grit and work that took his team to the promised land this year.
“We had a very tough pathway through the Africa Cup. The Uganda quarter-final had been the main focus for many months, so getting through that very tough match put us in a good place mentally for the Namibia match.
“Once we had beaten Namibia, the final was just as important as the Namibian win,” he said.
For De Souza, the theme of the year will be “redemption” as the national Under-20 gaffer looks to atone for the Junior Sables’ disappointment in this year’s Barthes Trophy. As hosts, Zimbabwe failed to make the most of home-ground advantage when his charges lost 28-13 to rivals Kenya in the final at Prince Edward School in April.
That defeat meant the Junior Sables missed out on what would have been an unprecedented hat-trick of Barthes Trophy titles. More disappointingly for De Souza was his side’s failure to take a second crack at the Junior World Trophy in Edinburgh, Scotland.
“It was a huge blow indeed,” said De Souza, on the final’s defeat to Kenya.
“We felt like we had all bases covered. Kenya were obviously out to redeem themselves after losing to us during the previous edition and, on the day, they were deservedly the better team.
“The blow for us was not getting the opportunity to go to junior worlds (Junior World Trophy), where Kenya was reasonably disappointing and did not perform well.
“The USA managed to get out of Pool B and eventually played Scotland in the final, which is a huge deal for them.
“Kenya ended up giving African countries a low rating, which is something we were aspiring to do better.”
It has been months since the dreaded April afternoon of the Junior Sables’ defeat and De Souza has since had time to reflect on what went wrong.
He has even had talks with the team, encouraging them to keep their heads high and start preparing for their redemption mission.
“The talks were difficult, especially at the beginning and soon after the defeat,” he said. We had a mental coach within the team and he has been helping us overcome the disappointment and bounce back mentally.
“The conversation and reflections were tough; we thought we had everything covered and, maybe, got a little overconfident in our approach.” But that was then. Now, the Zimbabwe Junior Sables are ready for 2025 and have already begun their preparations for the next edition of the Barthes Trophy.
De Souza recently released his team’s programme for the 2025 calendar and one of the standout provisions is a July date for his Junior World Trophy squad announcement. His plan began in October with the launch of the “Nedbank Grassroots to Greatness” programme, aimed primarily at identifying talent from all corners of the country.
“In 2025, we will require to double our efforts if we are to get close to replicating the success of 2024.
“The whole of Africa will be fiercely fighting for the Africa World Cup spot and we will need to be at our very best if we are to clinch that qualifying spot.
“Everyone will arrive in Uganda with hope they can win three matches and become champions.
“We have felt what it feels like to get through very tough matches, so, hopefully, we have a real belief that our side can go out and do something very special for the country,” he said.
The Zimbabwe Sables outfit has never looked as good and promising as it does, what with the Under-20 looking to be quite the talent factory and more and more players retracing their steps back home.
“Our Under-20s have been hugely successful and that’s due to the massive efforts put in by the coaches and management,” said Benade.
“They really provide an excellent platform for the top schoolboys to stay in rugby and aim to represent the country nationally and to stay involved in our game.
“We all saw the great contributions this year from Edward Sigauke, Dion Khumalo, Trevor Gurwe, Simba Siraha, Taku Musingwini, all a year or two out of the Zimbabwe Under-20 setup. The next big step is for the national senior club system to provide similar stimulation, and opportunities for young players so that once they are done with the under-20s, they can all find happy rugby environments to join.”
Pressed on whether or not more players will follow in the footsteps of Prior and Godwin, the Sables coach was rather coy with his response.
“We have many talented players, both locally and playing professionally around the world,” he said.
“Certainly, the players like Ian (Prior) and Kyle (Godwin) add incredible value not only on the field but also off the field, at training and in team meetings with the way they conduct themselves every day.
“They are great examples to the many young players in our group and sharing the field and touring with these experienced players is invaluable for their growth and development.”
