RUTHLESS Zimbabwe Junior Sables hammered Kenya 64-10 in a fifth-place play-off of the World Rugby U20 Trophy at the Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday.
With the masterclass routing of their East Africa rivals, Zimbabwe claimed continental bragging rights in the African derby.
Three months ago, Zimbabwe beat Kenya 28-7 in the final of the U20 Barthes trophy. Any ideas of a Kenyan revenge mission were thwarted by a rampant Zimbabwe, who ran in five tries in the first half as the Southern African nation clinched a fifth spot.
The Junior Sables scored five unanswered tries in the first half to put themselves in the driving seat of clinching fifth place at the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy.
Zimbabwe forwards bullied Kenya into submission and released their backs with some slick passing and clever offloads pleasing to the eye as they dotted over the whitewash.
Winger Tawanda Matipano scored the first two tries, the first in the ninth minute, capitalising on a defensive mistake by the Kenyans and the second in the 17th minute after he was put through by Shingi Manyarara, who had a stellar match.
Sometimes it felt like people were watching a highlights reel when inside centre Dion Khumalo scored a try after he was released from a line-out silencing the home crowd.
Zimbabwe were still in progress as they scored two more tries before the breakthrough prop Tadiwa Chimwanda and winger Benoni Nhekairo.
There was no way back for Kenya as Zimbabwe led 33-0 at the break.
Coach Shaun De Souza’s boys looked very fresh despite having played a gruelling four games in 15 days, and they looked like they were enjoying the match more than their Kenyan opponents.
Manyarara, who was signed by French top-flight rugby team, Racing 92, capped his fine afternoon with a try, and Simbarashe Kanyangara scored a try of his own soon after to mark a bright start for the Junior Sables in the second half to lead 47-0.
The game was threatening to be a one-sided affair, Kenya got a penalty, and instead of trying to score a try to get back into the match, they decided to go for posts and put points on the board.
Kenya were, however, given a lifeline soon after that through Zimbabwe’s indiscipline that had cost them throughout the tournament when Khumalo was given a red card, the seventh booking for De Souza’s charges in the tournament.
They scored a converted try to give the near to capacity crowd something to smile about on what was largely a one-sided affair.
Instead of utilising their one-man advantage, Kenya had disciplinary issues of their own when two of their players were sin-binned in the space of two minutes to give Zimbabwe back the advantage.
One of the yellow cards resulted in a penalty try for Zimbabwe.
The Junior Sables went over the line, scoring two more tries. Shadreck Mandaza is doing the Shadreck Mandaza things again with another of his trademark tries to cap an excellent afternoon for Zimbabwe.
Brendan Marume, the Junior Sables fly-half and co-captain, wore jersey number 24 instead of the usual 10. This was the team’s way of paying tribute to their fans, who have been singing their hearts out every match day for the past two weeks.
De Souza’s boys had saved their best for last, scoring 64 points in the match to better their best points tally of World Rugby U20, 46 points they scored over Papua New Guinea in 2010.
