By SANDRA MWILA –
ZAMBIA started her campaign at the 2014 Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) Men’s Sevens Rugby Championship in Zimbabwe on a fairly good note to remain in contention to reach the semi finals.
The games played at the Prince Edward School rugby grounds in Harare, saw Zambia register two wins and two defeats in the four games played yesterday and will need a win today to reach the last four.
Zambia opened her crusade to win the 12-team tournament that ends today with a 21-7 defeat at the hands of Tunisia but the Richard Kapoma side recovered to beat Botswana in the second match.
But Zambia again found the going tough after suffering a humiliating 33-0 thumping to pre-tournament favourites South Africa. Needing a win to keep alive their hopes of reaching the semi finals, Zambia beat Senegal 26-17 to dent the West Africans chances of a last four place.
Others results in the group saw South Africa winning their three games beating Senegal 36-0 and Tunisia 28-0 to be the only team in the group with a 100 percent winning record.
Madagascar beat Tunisia 32-7 while Senegal recorded a 19-10 win over Botswana and a 26-14 win over the Islanders and will need a win and hope Zambia loses to advance to the semi finals.
The top two sides will advance in the semi finals while the rest will drop into the Plate and Bowl events.
Meanwhile, hosts Zimbabwe started their chase with a 26-19 win over Nigeria before narrowly losing 19-17 to Kenya, who also beat Namibia 14-7 in the other game.
Uganda beat Ivory Coast 26-7 but lost 21-26 to Namibia, who later thrashed Ivory Coast 40-0. Nigeria inflicted the Ivoirians woes beating them 21-0.