The team suffered a heavy 64-0 defeat at the hands of the hosts, Morocco, in the opening match of the Rugby Africa Cup-Repêchage tournament. The tournament serves as a qualifier for the Africa Cup. The Vultures assistant coach, Tshoganetse Katse, told MmegiSport that the game plan was to kick the ball between the wings and the fullbacks, but that did not work. “We were outclassed in every department. The first half score was 26-0 and we thought we would bounce back with a try but that became impossible. Playing against professional rugby players is difficult. We learnt upon arrival that the majority of the Moroccan players are based in France.
Others play in the Morocco league, which is also a professional setup. Our opponents were clinical and outsmarted us. We could not keep up with their pace,” he said. Katse said Morocco had the same game plan as Botswana but because of their (Morocco) level of competition, they executed it better. He admitted that his side struggled the entire match. Regarding the next match, Katse said they had a chance to watch Cameroon play on Wednesday against Madagascar. “Cameroon has huge boys, they are physical but they do not possess the same skills as Morocco. The game plan we had against Morocco will work against Cameroon. We will move the ball around and create spaces because we also identified that they are poor in fielding. They did that against Madagascar, which hit those pockets and pressed as a team,” he said. Katse said they are hopeful and not expecting Cameroon to be a difficult opponent.
He pointed out that although his side was demolished by Morocco, they did not stop fighting. He said there will be a few changes in the line-up for the Cameroon match as the plan is to go for a running game. During the preparations for the tournament, Botswana had planned to play Zambia but the match did not materialise. Katse explained that as the technical team, they submitted their plan to the Botswana Rugby Union (BRU) board stating which countries they wanted to play as part of preparations. “We had spoken with Zambia and Zimbabwe A team because we knew they were going to give us good preparation ahead of this tournament. The plan fell through; we do not know what happened. The mother body can respond to that,” he said.
The Vultures are returning to continental rugby for the first time in six years, having last participated in the Rugby Africa competitions in 2018.
