Zimpapers Logo

Mbachi Mutukula-Maregere Sports Reporter
OLD Hararians coach Costa Dinha was a relieved man as his side found their rhythm again and posted an emphatic win over newcomers Old Johannians in a Northern Super League rugby encounter on home soil on Saturday.

The former Zimbabwe captain was happy to see his charges power to a 61-10 victory over Old Johannians with German-based speed merchant Tafadzwa Chitokwindo leading the rout.

Chitokwindo who plays for TV Pforzeheim was in a brilliant form and capped a fine afternoon by touching down four times.

The Zimbabwe international opened the try scoring for his team while loose forward Antonio Cipriano and Tangai Nemadire weighed in with a brace each that ensured Old Boys ran out comfortable winners.

After making a false start to the season with some defeats, Dinha who also played in Germany before retiring from the game, said he was happy to see Old Boys putting points on the board and reckoned that the victory was sign of a change in fortunes.

“We finally started getting some points and we are happy that the boys are awake again. The injection of the foreign based players was also a good rescue for the side to register a bigger score.

“Tafadzwa Chitokwindo gave us four tries and Anotonio Cipriano was also good and he contributed with two tries.

“I was also proud of David Makanda who scored three tries as well as Courtney Mwasira, and Tangai Nemadire who always scores tries in many of our games.

“I am confident that we are going to maintain our momentum in all our remaining fixtures. We started the season with stronger sides and I believe that is why it was hard for us to win because we had just come from a long break.

“However, we are glad that now we are awake and we are not going to give chances to any team in our following games,” said Dinha.

Old Johannians coach Max Madziva said they knew it was going to be impossible to get a win over the Old Boys who he described as the well conditioned side.

“We were playing against a team that has good condition while ours is still growing. We have just joined the league this season and I am sure they will get there very soon.

“There are three teams who we knew will give us competition, Sports Club, Old 0 and Old Georgians and now we know what they are capable of and their style of play so our chances of improving the next time we meet them is high.

“We got our two tries in the last 20 minutes of the game which shows that our fitness was getting better,” said Madziva. The newcomers got their tries from Unashe Gweze and Luke Rutter.