RWANDA’S Amavubi Stars will face Burundi’s Intamba ku rugamba next month as the two teams prepare for the preliminary round of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

The two will face off on March 5 at Prince Louis Rwagasore stadium in Bujumbura. Initially, the Rwanda Football Federation had written to Zimbabwe and Kenya requesting for friendly matches on the same date.

However, the two did not respond in time forcing Ferwafa to turn to Burundi. News of the March 5 international friendly was confirmed on Friday by the federation vice president Vedaste Kayiranga, who also doubles as spokesperson.

Under the agreement, the Under-20 teams of both countries will also play a friendly match in Kigali on the same day.

" Burundi managed to respond on time and we are doing everything to ensure that we meet what is needed to honour the friendly match,” Kayiranga told Saturday Sport yesterday before adding, "Having taken part in January’s Chan tournament, we believe Burundi has a good team to test Amavubi Stars,” added Kayiranga.

The qualifying draw for the Morocco finals will be conducted on April 27 in Cairo, Egypt, after which Rwanda will be able to know their preliminary round opponents.

The Amavubi squad to prepare for the Burundi game will be announced today, according to head coach Eric Nshimiyimana. Burundi is ranked 124 on Fifa rankings, ten places better than Rwanda.

The last encounter between the two teams was during the 2012 Africa Nations Cup qualifiers when Amavubi was under Ghanaian Sellas Tetteh. Rwanda won the first leg in Kigali 3-1. Jean-Claude Iranzi, Elias Uzamukunda (penalty) and Mbuyu Twite were on the score sheet. Papy Faty scored for Burundi.

Burundi also won the return leg fixture 3-1 but finished behind Rwanda in the Group with five points. Rwanda finished with six points, as Ivory Coast topped with a maximum 18 points. Benin finished bottom with five points.

 Junior wasps face Burundi’s U20

Richard Tardy’s junior wasps will face Burundi’s U20 in Kigali on March 5 ahead of the Africa Youth Championship qualifiers.

Junior Wasps is drawn against South Sudan in the qualifying first round of the road to 2015 Senegal Africa Youth Championship finals.

The team will play the first leg away on the weekend of April 4-6 before hosting the return leg in Kigali on the weekend of April 25-27.

Rwanda will be looking to qualify for the 2015 African U-20 championships in Senegal from March 8-22 and so far 51 countries are in contention for 16 places.