Africa-Press – Lesotho. The national rugby Sevens teams arrived in the country on Tuesday after an embarrassing outing at the Africa Pre-Olympic Qualifying tournament in Mauritius. Despite high hopes, Likatola finished bottom of their group after losing all the games.
Likatola’s performance in Mauritius was heavily affected by injuries, by the time they played their last game, they had already lost five players out of 12 that travelled.
Sechaba Mokhele suffered a chest injury, Paul Marie injured his finger, Bokang Ncheke broke his hand and another player had a concussion. The most serious injury was that of Lebohang Ntšinyi who broke his shoulder in Lesotho’s first game.
According to Likatola head coach Morapeli Motaung the players started getting nervous After the injuries and were afraid to go all out physically. “We did not do well given how we intended to do.
We have been playing rugby sevens for five years and this was an opportunity for us to grow. Teams we were playing against were using professionals while here at home we are below amateur.
The opponents’ players play abroad in France and England,” Motaung said. “It’s unfortunate, (because) we were improving and the results from tournament to tournament were showing improvement,” he continued.
All of the five players injured in Mauritius will have to be replaced in the national team because they are set for long spells on the sidelines. Motaung said Likatola will have to bring new players and integrate them into the team when it is already difficult to put together a full squad.
Given the small pool of players Motaung has at his disposal, it remains to be seen where the five players will come from. Some of the players that could help the national team are based outside Maseru or even outside the country which makes their attendance to training difficult.
It would require finances to bring the players to training every day to be with the team and that is a main challenge facing the national rugby team. At the time of writing, Ntšinyi was set to see a doctor and the recommendation is that he goes for an operation which could rule him out for the rest of the year.
Ncheke’s hand is in a cast while the other three will also remain under medical monitoring. “In the first game we suffered an injury, every game we played we were losing players and others starting to get nervous and were afraid to go hard and I understood,” Motaung said.
With the defeats, Lesotho bowed out of the running for the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. Algeria, Ivory Coast and Nigeria have proceeded to the final qualifying round to be held in Zimbabwe in September.
In 2018, Lesotho’s sevens team came close to making it into the final round of Africa qualifying but fell in the final of the preliminary tournament, losing 15-5 to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
For More News And Analysis About Lesotho Follow Africa-Press
