Zimbabwe have enough talent in their line-up and on their coaching staff to offer SA ‘A’ a “very good” challenge when they play as an opener for the Springboks v Barbarians match in Gqeberha on Saturday.
So said Springbok assistant coach Deon Davids on Monday, a day before the South African teams for these matches will be selected from a 54-player training squad in Johannesburg.
The South African contingent has been weakened by widespread injuries, while the entire Bulls squad is unavailable for selection as they play their URC final against Leinster on Friday.
Davids addressed concerns around these injuries, especially in the lock department, saying they are not ideal but also offer opportunities to young and uncapped players to step up.
‘Well-structured team’
He added that the SA ‘A’ match and non-Test against the Barbarians offer the Springbok coaching staff their own opportunity to see how close these players were to Test level, and if they could potentially fill a backup slot at next year’s Rugby World Cup.
Zimbabwe won the 2025 Rugby Africa Cup to qualify for the global showpiece, and Davids said they could not be underestimated.
“Zimbabwe is a well-structured team if you look at the different games that they’ve played,” Davids said.
“When you look back at history, Zimbabwe always could deliver quality players who became quality Springboks.”
These include Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira, Brian Mujati, Bobby Skinstad, Gary Teichmann, Tonderai Chavhanga, and Danie Gerber, among others.
Zimbabwe still producing quality players
“If you look at selection now, they’ve got a guy like Gary Porter (lock) who played for the Stormers who will be part of them.
“They’ve got a guy like Tino Mavesere (flank), whom I watched at the University of the Western Cape and now playing at the Sharks. I think he’s a quality player.
“They had a guy like Kennedy Tsimba who was a quality player in the fringes who I think was also involved in some stage at the team.“
Davids also credited Zimbabwe head coach Pieter Benade for having assistants of the likes of Gert Smal with him.
“He has been part of their squad for a while and will bring a lot of structure to their forward play and what they want to achieve there.”
