It will surely be all over for Zimbabwe should they lose to Kenya and as expected Namibia steamroll over Madagascar in the last games of the four team qualifying process.
Kenya the defending Africa Cup 1A champions are already safely on 10 points while Zimbabwe are four points behind with Namibia on five points while the hosts are still to record a victory and the chances are that they will come out with the wooden spoon.
Should Zimbabwe beat Kenya and Namibia overcome hosts Madagascar and pick up a bonus point, all the three teams will move to 10 points, and the number of tries scored and the ranking prior to the qualifiers will be used to separate the men from the Boys and that is likely to point to Kenya’s advantage as things stand right now.
However, the Sables will still need to beat Kenya as they will be offered another chance to fight for a World Cup berth in a play off against Russia should they finish second at the Africa qualifiers. Zimbabwe could rue the 24-20 loss to Namibia as that might be the turning point should they fail to make the long cherished dream of making it to the finals of the World Cup after 23 years of failure.
However, the Zimbabwean camp is still hopeful that they will make it to the finals with coach Brendan Dawson speaking from Madagascar saying they are going all guns blazing against the Kenyans.
That would mean the likes of Jacques Leitao, Schalk Ferreira, Lambert Groenwald, Riaan O’Neal, Guy Cronje and captain Daniel Hondo recapturing the form that saw them tear apart Madagascar in their opening game while at the same time not allowing the Kenyans those gaps which the Namibians exploited.
Kenya, have so far, proved the team to beat at the festival, and with their Sevens team playing in the lucrative HSBC World Series, they are favourites against a Sables side that has been dogged by in house fighting in the past few years.
Namibia have represented Africa at the World Cup since 1999, after taking over from the Ivory Coast who represented the continent at the 1995 finals. Zimbabwe were last at the World Cup in 1991, having also been there in 1987.
So far, it does not look like all that a bed of roses for Zimbabwe for the 2015 World Cup.
Post published in: Rugby