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Mehluli Sibanda in CAPE TOWN, South Africa

THERE was victory at last for Zimbabwe at the Rugby World Cup Sevens when they floored Jamaica 31-17 at the Cape Town Stadium here yesterday to finish 23 out of 24 men’s teams at the tournament.

Zimbabwe’s win was a repeat of the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco, United States, where the Cheetahs defeated the Jamaicans to claim 23rd spot.

It was a disappointing Rugby World Cup Sevens for the Graham Kaulback-coached Cheetahs as they lost three of the four matches they played. They started off with a 31-7 loss to Canada in the pre-round of 16 on Friday, the opening day of the global showpiece. In the bowl quarter-finals, Zimbabwe were beaten 28-0 by Hong Kong and came out second best 21-19 against South Korea in the 21-24 place playoff, a loss which relegated the Zimbabweans to a battle with Jamaica to avoid finishing as the worst ranked men’s team at the tournament.

Wing Nigel Tinarwo opened the scoring for Zimbabwe with a try, with the conversion missed by Ryan Musumhi. Some individual brilliance by Munesu Muneta saw him dot over the line and Musumhi made it 14-0 with the extra two points. Munopa Muneta scored the third try for Zimbabwe just before the break with some individual prowess for the Cheetahs to load 19-0 going into the break.

Skipper Kudzai Mashawi broke through to score the fourth try for Zimbabwe whose conversion was missed by Musumhi. Some missed tackles saw Jamaica score their first try through Ryan Denvir.

It was try number five for Zimbabwe when Jerry Jaravaza popped the ball up for Sam Phiri to score and Musumhi booted the conversion in to make it 31-5. Jamaica did sneak in two tries scored by Ronaldeni Fraser and Ashley Smith just before the end but Zimbabwe held on for victory.

Kaulback saluted his players for putting up a better show.

“I am happy for the boys this morning, especially for them, they have been putting in so much work, as we’ve been saying over the last months, it’s just awesome for the boys to get the win and all credit to the boys for coming through this morning and really putting on a good show,’’ remarked Kaulback.

“This being an Olympics sport is moving to quickly in terms of professionalism, we’ve been working so hard and doing as much as we can to take those next steps towards that stage with our team but up to now, I think we did everything that we could and it’s now just to see where the other teams are and to emulate and surpass that,’’ said Kaulback.

On the players he feels were consistent in the tournament, Kaulback pointed at playmaker Musumhi who played all the four matches as someone who was electric in attack and understood the game well. Kaulback highlighted that Musumhi made enormous changes to his defence and his tackling from last month’s World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in Chile.