Zimbabwe senior men’s rugby team coach Piet Benade was delighted to see his side grind out a result after holding off a spirited Uganda comeback in a Rugby Africa Cup quarterfinal clash in Kampala on Saturday.
The Sables appeared on course for a dominant win as they cruised to a 22-0 lead in the first half through three spectacular tries from wingers Edward Sigauke and Takudzwa Muswingini as well as veteran centre Kudzai Mashawi.
But the Ugandans, spurred on by a vociferous home crowd, came back strongly in the second half to score two tries, and as many penalties from the kicking tee.
In the end, Zimbabwe survived the onslaught to book a semifinal date with old foes Namibia at the same venue on Wednesday while Kenya and Algeria will clash in the other semi-final.
Benade said although he would have wanted a better overall performance from his team, he was pleased that they still managed to secure the win and progress to the semis.
“I think a win is a win, we certainly would have liked to perform better here and there but at the end of the day we just did enough to scrap past a very talented team, a committed team, team full of big, strong and proud Ugandans in their capital.”
“Certainly we will take the positives out and we will work on a couple of things to be competitive against Namibia,” Benade said.
Benade revealed that the conditions in Kampala meant his team had to make use of the advantage of playing into the wind in the first half.
And he was delighted that they managed to build a sufficient first advantage which ultimately proved enough, despite their failure to add to their total after the break.
“There was obviously a bit of wind and we knew that we needed a lead. I thought 22 points (in the first half) was good, but we still left out a couple of try scoring opportunities out which we would obviously like to remedy.”
The former Western Province star is anticipating a different challenge from the Namibian, who he expects to their phusicality and setpiece ability.
“Namibia will be a different challenge it will probably be a bit more setpiece dominated affair from their side so its up to us to try and match that,” he said.