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ZIMBABWE Goshawks head coach Brendan Dawson feels his side is still a work in progress despite registering their maiden win in the Currie Cup First Division with a hard-fought 22-21 victory against African rugby rivals Kenya in Cape Town, South Africa, on Saturday.

The Goshawks ended their two-match winless streak in South Africa’s second-tier domestic competition but were made to work hard towards the end as Kenya, who had trailed 17-0, fought back to almost snatch victory at the death.

While delighted to have achieved the team’s target of beating Kenya, Dawson admitted that his side still needs to improve in several areas.

“Obviously it was a great win, in the end, we fought for 21 phases and to secure the victory (which) was a great testament to how the guys committed themselves to the game. I’m very happy with the win, beating Kenya was a massive target of ours and it was a great win,” Dawson said.

The Zimbabwe rugby legend noted that their scrum was an area of concern and needed to improve over the next two weeks while he is also targeting improvement at the breakdown and better execution at line-out set-pieces.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, obviously I thought the breakdown area is one area we were not accurate enough. We were not as clinical as we want to be and (we need to improve) our timing at the breakdown,” he said.

“We also have to work a bit more on our scrummaging. I felt we allowed the Kenyans to hold themselves where we could’ve worked them a lot more. We also need to be a bit more clinical with our lineouts.”

Dawson, who has had to do without most of his overseas-based stars in the Currie Cup, said he is happy with the progress made by his squad which has a blend of young and experienced players.

Zimbabwe are using the Currie Cup First Division to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers.

“I think they are progressing but not as much at the rate that I wanted. But very happy with where we are. As we have said all along this is part of the preparation as we build up and lay the foundations for new players to come up and be seen as we build the strongest of the squad we can for the bigger task which lies ahead,” Dawson said.

The Goshawks will have a bye in the Currie Cup First Division this weekend and will resume their campaign in two weeks’ time when they face Boland Cavaliers. — ZimSportLive