Zimpapers Logo

JUGGERNAUT . . . England Independent Schools’ Elliot Roofe goes for his first try under the challenge of Mbare Academy scrum-half Pride Nyameni at Harare Sports Club yesterday

Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
Mbare Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . 0
Independent Schools . . . . . (52) 76
IT was a David and Goliath battle, but this time David forgot his sling and his stones at home as Mbare Rugby Academy were taught a huge lesson by touring English Under-18 side the Independent Schools at Harare Sports Club yesterday. It was the first of four games that the Britons are lined up to play in Harare and to show their business intentions they made light work of Victor Pekani’s side.

The tourists ran in 12 tries as Mbare Academy failed to find a way of going past their defence, with eight of the tries converted while eight of them came in the first half.

Elliot Roofe led the Independent Schools attack as he touched down three times, Will Bailey scored a brace of tries all coming in the first half and causing most of the destruction against Mbare Academy.

Other tries came from Rory Carter, Joel MacFarlane, Miles Moorhouse in the first half while Juyin Oluwayemi, William Pepper, Patrick Tarleton and Gus Antons weighed in with a try apiece in the second period.

Mbare were simply out run in every department, their defence left them down the most as the Barbarians camped in the Mbare half for the greater part of the first period.

Watch the interview with Alex Laybourne, the Independent schools team manager below

Lock Carter was the first on the score-sheet putting the visitors 5-0 up as Will Bailey missed the conversion as early as the first minute and against in the fifth minute Independent Schools came back to haunt the Zimbabweans.

This time it was Joel MacFarlane who placed under the posts to give Morgan a better chance of nailing the bonus points and they took a 12-0 lead with less than five minutes on the clock. Roof, who went on to score two more tries found his first off a maul carrying  the ball through from a push over and it was from here that Mbare found the going much tougher than they thought. Maybe the hosts lost the game before entering the field of play as they looked to be intimidated by their opponents who were  bigger in size.

Despite being bigger, the visitors used more of their tactical acumen than their size to see off the hosts.
Independent Schools team manager Alex Laybourne attributed his team’s win to their preparations but said he had not expected them to win by such a margin.

“The boys came through the weather conditions here which are different from England where we are coming from but I am happy we managed to pull up a win. It was a bit difficult for us due to the humidity but the boys raised the tempo and applied pressure in the right areas,” said Laybourne.

While they were expected to play Harare Lions (a select side made up of schools from Harare) today, there has not been enough preparations by the hosts to come up with this squad and instead, they will face Prince Edward at the same venue today.

“It has not affected our psychology because we are here to play and we are focusing on each game differently so it is just about the boys going on with the game,” added Laybourne.

Mbare Academy were addicted to using their boot and thus lost possession, giving away the ball even when they reached the Independent Schools 22 yard box. But they managed to work on their defence strategy in the second half.

Compared to the eight tries they conceded in the first half, Mbare were a much better side defensively in the second half where they kept the ball for longer periods but the attack was not sharp enough for them to get any points.

In the second period they conceded four tries, the first one coming on the board 13 minutes from the breather when winger Juyin Oluwayemi classically beat three men  off a quick penalty, to convert his effort and 59-0 it read.

Teams
Mbare Academy: G. Muchenje, M. Mudzami, H. Tarwirei, M. Mandizvidza, D. Mukototsi, B. Masendarudzi, W. Sarani, R. Mtukwa, P. Nyameni, T. Malenga, M. Chari, J. Vambe,  B. Chinyanya, V. Mushayahama, B. Chari.

Independent Schools: E. Roofe, A. Dunham, B. Christe, T. Simpson, H. McPherson, P. Marmion, R. Carter, W. Forster, R. Whiteside, C. Morgan, W. Bailey, Miles Moorehouse (captain), J. MacFarlane, W. Potter, P. Tarleton.