Cheetahs miss out of co-status

Zimbabwe’s Cheetahs have missed out of c hance of playing against the best in sevens rugby in the World Series after they lost out 22-19 to Russia in the last 30 seconds of the deciding game.

A win in that game would have provided the opportunity for the Cheetahs to rub shoulders against the best in the sport like the likes of Fiji, the All Blacks, England, Samoa, South Africa and others but that was not to be despite putting up a brilliant show in the three day qualifiers.

The Cheetahs will now live to fight another day after losing out in a campaign in which they played brilliant rugby and lost out only twice in the six games they played out throughout the Hong Kong Sevens gathering.

The Cheetahs hammered Guyana 36-0 and followed this with another impressive 41-0 thrashing of Tonga. The Cheetahs then lost out 1-0 to Spain in the group stages but managed to qualify for the quarter finals by virtue of being the best placed runners up in the eight team qualifiers.

They then beat Brazil 21-14 in the quarter finals and later Spain 24-14 in the semi finals for that vital place in the final where they eventually lost out to Russia.

Ironically, the Zimbabwean senior team also lost out of a place to the 2015 World Cup finals to Russia when the two met in the repercharge.

The Cheetahs, however, will now turn their attention to the 2016 Olympic Games qualifiers in which they still have a chance to make it to Rio de Janeiro come next June.

Post published in: Rugby

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