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Zimbabwe Sables on a roll, dismiss Kenya in Kenya

by Ndou Paul
24 Jul 2011 at 07:41hrs | Views
Zimbabwe claimed revenge over hosts Kenya when they beat them 26-21 to complete their home and away sweep of the Victoria Cup at the the Nyayo National Stadium Saturday.

The Sables didn't display a great game but took advantage of Kenya's sloppy defending and unnecessary knock-ons to score three easy tries, three penalties and a conversion.

Winger Gardner Nechironga capitalised on Kenya's lack of cordination in the midfield to score a brace of tries with outside centre Lloyd Machanjare, adding one as fly-half Tichafara Makwanya converted one to lead 17-10 at intervals. Makwanya would finish it off with the icing on the cake with three penalty convertions in the second half.

Kenya scored one try in each half through eighthman Lawrence Buyachi and Vincent Ong'era respectively. Peter Claver-Abuoga managed one convertion and three penalties.

Defence was fine

Nonetheless, it was an improvement from thier 24-42 defeat in Harare.

Elsewhere, the Wallabies rebounded from their shock loss to Samoa to spectacularly launch their Tri-Nations campaign with a 39-20 win over South Africa in Sydney Saturday.

The Australians hit back from their embarrassing 32-23 defeat to the Samoans to hammer the injury-hit Springboks five tries to two in a dynamic attacking performance at the Sydney Olympic stadium.

Front-line players

Reinforced by seven big guns missing from last weekend's humiliation, the Wallabies ripped apart the South Africans in a bonus-point demolition as they search for their first Tri-Nations trophy in a decade.

"I was confident we would be better (after last week)," Wallabies' coach Robbie Deans said. "You never presume, but the boys got the job done well. They adjusted their mentality, their body position and we played some rugby this week.

"Obviously, there were some combinations that came back together again, that all assisted."

The Wallabies will also keep the Mandela Plate they won last year with their fourth win in five Tests against the Springboks. South Africa left behind 21 injured front-line players for their Australasian leg of the Tri-Nations. They face the All Blacks in Wellington next weekend.

"They took full advantage of the ball we spilled. Gee, I would hate to look at our turnover stats and the ball we gave away," skipper John Smit said.
"They made good decisions with it as well and we rue those two tries in two minutes in the first half.


Source - Byo24Sports