By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE and SHAMAOMA MUSONDA  –

Madagascar 43 Zambia 0

THE Zambia Under-19 team suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Madagascar at the on-going 2014 Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) Four-Nation Africa Cup Group 1B tournament in Kampala, Uganda.
Madagascar proved too strong for Zambia as they scored five tries in the first half to dampen Zambians’ hopes of a comeback.
Zambia coach Phil Dongo described the defeat as painful and urged the players to step up their game in their next encounter against Senegal tomorrow.
Dongo however attributed his team’s thumping to a heavy downpour that some parts Kampala experienced on Wednesday.
“The conditions were very bad for our players, there were heavy rains and the pitch was dump. So in as much as it is humiliating loss, I think the rains also contributed to our team’s poor performance.
However, we are still positive ahead of the next game against Senegal and we hope to put in our level best to win the game. Though it will not be an easy game but we are geared to aim for the best,” Dongo said.
Zambia will miss the services of Clive Nkemba, who sustained a rib injury during Madagascar game.
“Nkemba is slowly recovering from the rib injury but I will not risk featuring him in our next game taking into account how physical the Senegalese are,” Dongo said.
Meanwhile, Dar-Es-Salaam Leopards are today expected to arrive in the country ahead of the two-day David Abel Ray Phiri (DARP) International Rugby Challenge that has attracted four foreign clubs and kicks off tomorrow at the Lusaka Rugby Club.
DARP organising committee secretary Cecilia Tresha said at a briefing in Lusaka yesterday that the K120, 000 budget has been met and praised the sponsors for responding favourably to the calls to be part of the international tournament that honour four people who contributed immensely to the growth of the sport in the country.
“We are happy to inform you that we have met our budget needs. This is quite a rare situation and we should thank our various sponsors for responding in such a fantastic way. It’s now down to the teams to do their work on the pitch,” she said.
She named the companies that chipped in as Zambia Breweries, Cavmont Bank, Coppernet Solutions, Hotel-Edinburgh, Lusaka Hotel, Stanbic Bank, Madison General, Zamtel, Pakawama Lodge, O’Hagan’s and Buildcom Investment.
The annual international tournament has attracted 16 teams with four of them being foreign sides including defending champions Old Harareans and Dar-Es-Salaam Leopards from Tanzania.
Harare Sports Club and Police Defenders from Zimbabwe completes the list of foreign teams coming for the event.
Tresha said  the committee had plans of growing the tournament by inviting teams from other countries.
“Right now, we want to grow our relationship with teams from our neighbouring countries and after that we shall spread to other countries but so far, so good, we are doing well,” Tresha said.
Tresha said Dar-es-Salaam Leopards would fly in this morning while the rest of the teams from Zimbabwe and outside Lusaka are expected to be in either later today or early tomorrow.
She also said that host club ‘Powerhouse’ Lusaka would field two teams in the competition and named the other 10 local sides taking part as Green Buffaloes, Green Eagles, Red Arrows, Nkwazi, Prisons, Ndola, KPF, Mufulira, Nchanga and the ‘Men-At-Work’ Diggers.