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Paul Munyuki Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Rugby TODAY marks exactly a month before the Sables kick-start their 2015 World Cup qualifiers campaign and Zimbabwe Rugby Union vice-president Colleen de Jong admits there is a lot of work to be done.Zimbabwe are set to play two games before their departure for Madagascar against the Limpopo Blue Bulls on June 12 before taking on their academy side on June 14.

In the Africa Cup, the Sables will take on Madagascar in their opening game.

The Africa Cup is also doubling up as the London 2015 Rugby World Cup qualifier with the winners of the tournament getting a place at the showcase.

Zimbabwe will take on Namibia in their second game before rounding up their campaign with a date against defending African champions Kenya on July 6 in Antananarivo.

The Sables’ biggest threat at the qualifiers are Namibia who have been to the last four World Cup tournaments since 1999 while Zimbabwe’s last appearance was in 1991 on invitation.

Last Wednesday, the Sables evening field session at Old Hararians was disturbed due to load shedding and today the squad is expected to converge at Harare Sport Club.

“There is a lot of work to do and we have a full programme ahead, the boys are training, they have gym sessions and tomorrow they are going to be training at Harare Sport Club in the evening as part of the programme,” said de Jong.

“There is an issue with load shedding at Old Hararians especially on Monday and Wednesday nights and that is why we have moved to Harare Sports Club for our evening training sessions.

“We expect that all the players, both foreign and local, be here for full training before mid June as we are going to play Limpopo Blue Bulls and their development side on June 12 and 14.” There, however, is a slight chance that the games will be played in Zimbabwe.

“We would have loved to play all these games at home so that we would give our corporate partners, sponsors and supporters a chance to be associated with the Sables at home but we are still in talks with the teams,” said de Jong. The ZRU had engaged Uganda for a friendly match but the East Africans indicated they were not able to play Zimbabwe for unknown reasons.

“We had spoken to Uganda hoping that we would play them (Uganda), we were willing to host them for a home match but they did not commit,” said de Jong.