Rwanda U-23 football team will face South Africa’s U-23 side in a friendly game on March 25 in Johannesburg in preparation for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games qualifier against Somalia next month.

Rwanda’s interim head coach Lee Johnson admitted that more games against strong opposition will come in handy as Rwanda attempts to qualify for the Caf U-23 championship scheduled for December 5-19 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The top three teams from this event will qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil and for Rwanda to make it to this level; they have to overcome Somalia before meeting Uganda in the second round and Egypt in the third round to qualify for the December showpiece.

Johnson, also the Ferwafa technical director said, "To move forward as a country, we do need games. We are trying to adopt a list of international fixtures because it gives us a structure and we can plan for things.”

Rwanda will host the 2016 African Nations Championship (Chan) from January 16-February 7 and he further added that, "Without competition, our players will never improve so it is crucial especially with Chan coming up; we need to provide our players with some really good opposition because without such exposure, our players will not know what to do in some situations during games.”

Rwanda will host Somalia on the weekend of April 24/25 and will travel to Somalia for the return leg set for the weekend of May 8/9.