Zimbabwe coach Cyprian Mandenge has blamed the national team’s Africa Rugby Tier 1A loss to Uganda on injuries that constricted their options concerning fielding of players on the turf.
Uganda Rugby Cranes defeated the Sables 27-34, drawing closer to securing the ticket to be part of Africa’s top elite rugby teams for another year.
Oscar Kalyango, Lawrence Ssebuliba, Marvin Odongo, Phillip Wokorach and Asuman Mugerwa touched for the pearl as the nation truly revenged their back to back upsets in the 2016 Elgon Cup (10-48) and against Namibia in their first continental match (31-40).
“Unfortunately we got injuries at the wrong time and that affected our game somehow,because we ended up using a forward to play in the back line and also the other side we didn’t take our chances,” he told Zimbabwe Daily News.
Zimbabwe made eight changes to their squad ahead of the clash. Joshua Gando, Lucky Sithole, Ernest Mudzengerere, Tolerance Zishe, David Makanda, Manasah Sita and Royal Mwale were all dropped and the coach added that they needed patience.
“We had chances that we were supposed to take but because we needed patience, we were so hungry, we wanted to score tries but i guess it’s all about process.”
