After failing to secure automatic qualification in the African continent qualifiers in which they finished second to Namibia, the Sables needed a win over Russia to keep their qualification hopes alive but that was not to be as tries from Lambert Groenwald and Tafadzwa Chitongwindo as well as conversions from Guy Cronje proved not good enough for victory.
The two teams had gone to halftime with Russia leading 13-7 but when the eastern European country extended their lead to 20-7, the Sables appeared to be slowly losing grip of the game, and when time finally came up for the match, the score was reading 23-15 in favour of the Russians.
While the Sables are crying over spilt milk the Russians will now meet Uruguay in the final qualifying round to qualify for England 2015.
Uruguay hammered Hon Kong 28-3 in Montevideo for another attempt at the World Cup having qualified for the 1995 finals. Observers, however, have questioned the decision of having the qualifier being a one game contest and for that matter with Zimbabwe playing away from home.
Zimbabwe will now have to wait until the qualifiers for the 2019 finals to have another try at World Cup qualification having missed out in 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, and now 2015. The Sables were last at the World Cup in 1991 but have continued to fall to Namibia in the qualifiers that followed.
By the end of the qualifiers, 3000 players from 83 teams across six continents will have taken part in a record-breaking Rugby World Cup 2015 qualification process featuring 203 matches.
Post published in: Rugby