By RONALD CHAWE –
FRESH from winning the Zambia International Sevens, Zambia has been entered to take part in the 2017 Maseru International Sevens in Lesotho to prepare for Africa Cup outing setfor Uganda later this year.
The Maseru Sevens will be played from September 23-24 while theAfrica Cup is scheduled for October 7 and 8 in Kampala, Uganda.
RG Sports Management (RGSM) Director Ronnel Armengol confirmedthat development and that the Lesotho outing will be a good dress rehearsal for Team-Zambia.
RGSM is the firm contracted by the Zambia Rugby Union (ZRU) to market the national Sevens team and handle its affairs.
In an interview yesterday, Armengol said the Africa Cup was an importanttournament and Zambia needed to prepare adequately in order to put up a good show.
On the Zambia International Sevens, he said the tournament was for the team as it gave the players and coaches the exposure needed for future engagements.
“We are trying to get into the HSBC World Series. With our current growth and results we are excited about our prospects. The Zambia Tournament was very important as it gave our coaches the chance to build on squad depth to select the final 12 players for the Lesotho tour and the Africa Cup in six weeks in Uganda,” he said.
He said the country would be entering the two tournaments to win it and not just to fill up numbers.
He said Zambia will be going to both competitions to win the main titles and not just make up numbers.
Armengol, a former national rugby team player himself, said more players wereraising their levels of the game as wanted by the ZRU.
He was particularly happy with their resilience and also their defensive structure which he said was an Achilles heel previously further adding there was an improvement in the set-piece movement.
He said turn out of the visiting teams was also good adding the competition from the five local sides entered was also good.
He said Zimbabwe was a rugby powerhouse on the continent and that Zambia would continue fighting hard to reach those high levels.
Zambia A won an inaugural Kwese Sports Zambia International Sevens events that attractedsix international team in Botswana A and B, Zimbabwe A, ZimbabweGoshawks, Lesotho and Democratic Republic of Congo.