Rugby: Zimbabwe sleep in Tunisian streets during World Cup qualifying

  • 04/07/2018
Zimbabwe rugby team
The Zimbabwe rugby team sleep in the streets of Tunisia. Photo credit: Twitter

Can you imagine this happening to the All Blacks?

The Zimbabwe national rugby team have apparently slept on the streets in Tunisia to protest their treatment ahead of their World Cup qualifying game against the home side.

The 'Sables' are in the city of Beja - about 100km west of Tunisia's capital Tunis - for an Africa zone qualifying match, but were delayed six hours at immigration upon arrival and then transported to unsuitable accommodation.

They took to the streets to protest and have now been relocated to more appropriate lodgings.

"Our national rugby team are being treated in the most appalling way in Tunisia," said Zimbabwe senator David Coltart on social media.

"They have been forced to sleep on the streets as the accommodation they were provided with is disgusting.

"Most team members only had two hours sleep last night."

Rugby Africa and Tunisia Rugby Union have issued an apology for the treatment.

"We pride ourselves in hosting Rugby Africa tournaments every year, and make every effort to meet the best international standards in terms of accommodation and other infrastructure," said Rugby Africa executive member Khaled Babbou, on behalf of Tunisian RU.

"Something went wrong, for which I am sorry, but this was corrected this morning in consultation with the Sables management team.

"I can assure you there was absolutely no intention to destabilise our opponents and we will make every possible effort to ensure they have a good preparation ahead of Saturday's match."

The winners of the African zone will land in the All Blacks' pool at next year's Rugby World Cup in Japan. The runners-up will enter a repechage and the winners of that will also face New Zealand in pool play.

Zimbabwe have a draw and a loss in the Africa Gold Cup, while Tunisia have lost their only match so far.

Newshub.