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LONDON. — Zimbabwe Director of Rugby Liam Middleton believes that reaching the Rugby World Cup would change the sport and the country for the next decade, but Russia are the first to stand in their way.
Only in the final frantic chapter of Africa’s Rugby World Cup qualifying tournament in Madagascar, did Namibia seal their place at England 2015 at the expense of both Zimbabwe and Kenya.

The Zimbabweans could console themselves with a place in the ‘last chance saloon’ play-offs, but after narrowly missing out on Africa’s automatic qualifying place for RWC 2015, they now face a journey to Siberia where they take on Russia in the town of Krasnoyarsk. The one-off match is the first ever meeting between the two nations and the winner will proceed to the repechage final against either Uruguay or Hong Kong. The victor of that match will take their place in Pool A at next year’s showpiece, alongside Australia, England, Wales and Fiji.

“We came one try away from the World Cup, which would be phenomenal for the country. Yes there was disappointment, but I can say that very quickly the focus turned to Russia and that sense of resilience and positiveness returned,” said Middleton, who is back in Zimbabwe after a period of coaching professionally in the UK.

“We’ve got to play our kind of rugby, we’re an exciting side and we’ve got a lot of game-breakers in our team. Our backs are Sevens players and I think we have some of the fastest players in Africa. Our number 10 and number 8 both play for the Golden Lions in Super Rugby, so we have big players in important positions.

“Reaching an event like this would change the face of Zimbabwean rugby for a decade. It would not only have an impact on Zimbabwean rugby but all sport, and I think the country as a whole would be affected by the achievement of reaching the third biggest sporting event in the world.” Russia finished third in the European Nations Cup behind Georgia and Romania but qualified for the last World Cup in 2011, their first. — IRB.