Rugby

The Namibia Rugby Union has secured several friendly matches for the national team, the Welwitschias, as their preparation for the 2015 World Cup intensifies.

So far this year, the Welwitschias have only played four matches against regional Namibian teams in the Navachab Cup competition, but the standard of opposition was generally low as the Welwitschias ran up some big victories.

On March 18, they beat the Western Chiefs 62-0 and followed that up with a 55-6 victory against the Hardap Raiders in Keetmanshoop on April 6.

Namibia’s Sevens Rugby team had a rude awakening when it could only win one of six matches at the CAR Africa Cup Sevens tournament in Mombasa, Kenya over the weekend.

Namibia was drawn in Group B along with Tunisia, Zambia and Kenya B, and lost all its round robin matches on Saturday.

They lost their opening match 17-7 against Zambia, with Nandivatu Karuuombe scoring Namibia’s only try, before suffering a comprehensive 34-0 defeat against Kenya B.

The team regrouped and put up a better performance against Tunisia but once again lost the match 12-0.

Namibian U20 rugby coach Jood Opperman praised his players on a fine performance when they beat a Namibian Presidents team 74-19 on Saturday.

The juniors gave a fine display of attacking rugby as they ran in a total of 12 tries, after leading 38-7 at halftime.

Despite the one-sided encounter, coach Jood Opperman said they had learnt a lot.

Namibia’s national Under 20 rugby team completely dominated their friendly match against a Namibian President’s XV on Saturday, running out comfortable 74-19 winners, after leading 38-7 at halftime.

They ran in a total of 12 tries in an attacking display of 15-man rugby as both the forwards and the backs got amongst the tries.

The encounter served as a practise match for the Under 20‘s ahead of the Junior Rugby World Trophy competition in Chile in May and on this display they certainly looked in fine shape.

Namibia’s national Sevens Rugby team left for Kenya on Wednesday to compete in the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) Africa Cup Sevens tournament over the weekend.

The competition will feature 12 teams in total, including two teams from Kenya as well as the national teams of Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Uganda, Zambia, Nigeria, Madagascar, Morocco, Zimbabwe and Tunisia.

The competition will consist of three pools, with Namibia drawn in Pool B along with Tunisia, Zambia and Kenya B.

Namibia’s return to the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy stage in northern Chile next month has created something of a frenzy in the East African nation according to head coach Jood Opperman.

“There has been a lot of media interest, so much that I had to ask journalists to ease off on the players as we build up to travel to Chile,” admitted Opperman, who was a prop in Namibia’s first Rugby World Cup match back in 1999.

The Welwitschias ran in 11 tries for a one-sided 71-7 victory against the Hardap Raiders in the main match of the Navachab Challenge at the national Rugby Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Flyhalf Justin Nel had his kicking boots on, converting eight tries while he also scored a try for a personal tally of 21 points.

It was an efficient performance by the Welwitschias against a strong Hardap side that was made up of players from Rehoboth’s two Premier League clubs, Reho Falcon and Rehoboth Rugby Club.

The Namibia Rugby Union on Wednesday launched the Navachab Gold Mine Regional Cup which will kick off in Walvis Bay on Saturday.

The competition has been sponsored by Navachab Gold Mine to an amount of N$822 260 and will see a Namibian regional competition taking place again after an absence of many years.

United ran out comfortable 36-16 victors in their rugby derby match against Wanderers at United Trustco field on Saturday.

United’s forwards dominated the early exchanges but Wanderers took the lead through a penalty by Haico Prinsloo and a drop by flyhalf Andre Visser.

Wanderers immediately struck back through a try by wing Tuna Amutenya, and another by hooker Callie Swanepoel to take a 10-6 lead at the break.

The Namibia Rugby Referee Society (NRRS) has received support of N$50 000 from FNB Namibia for the upcoming rugby season from May to August 2013.

FNB Namibia at the same time pledged support of this amount for a three-year period from 2013 to 2016.

The NRRS also received a once-off donation of N$ 90 000 towards their playing gear.

Ingrid Goeieman, Manager Sponsorships and Donations at FNB Namibia said: