Rugby

Namibia scraped home with a 37-33 victory against Zimbabwe in the opening match of the Windhoek Lager Tri-Nations Rugby Tournament on Saturday.

After leading 16-15 at halftime, Namibia surged into a 34-18 lead, but a strong fightback by Zimbabwe saw the home side eventually winning by only four points. Had Zimbabwe’s goalkicking been better, they could well have won the match.

Namibia scored four tries, four penalties, one drop goal and one conversion, while Zimbabwe scored four tries, one conversion, two penalties and one penalty try.

The Namibian rugby selectors have named a young and inexperienced squad of 26 players for the upcoming Windhoek Lager Tri-Nations Rugby tournament, which kicks off on Saturday when Namibia take on Zimbabwe.

Spain will also compete in the tournament, taking on Zimbabwe on Wednesday, November 14 and Namibia on Saturday, November 17.

The Namibian team will be captained by experienced eighthman PJ van Lill for their opening match against Zimbabwe on Saturday, but only includes eight players who represented Namibia at last year’s Rugby World Cup.

Namibia Breweries, through its brand Windhoek Lager yesterday came on board as a sponsor for the Tri-Nations International Rugby tournament between Namibia, Zimbabwe and Spain that will take place in Windhoek from November 10 to 17.

In terms of the sponsorship, Namibia Breweries will cover the accommodation and meals of one of the visiting teams while Windhoek Lager will receive branding at the stadium and will have their logo displayed on all the teams’ jerseys. They will also receive an executive suite for the duration of the tournament.

The Namibia Rugby Union got the ball rolling to tackle the challenges ahead with an impressive stakeholders conference on Friday, October 19 that was attended by rugby dignitaries from Namibia and abroad.

NRU CEO Sybrand de Beer presented an ambitious budget plan of N$23 million that the NRU will need to run its local leagues and compete internationally over the next year.

The Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) will host a stakeholders conference on Friday, 19 October where the NRU will present its strategic plan and goals for 2013 and beyond, with the aim of qualifying for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

The event, which will take place at the Windhoek Country Club, will be attended by prominent members of Namibia’s sporting industry as well as the International Rugby Board.

Local guests will include members of the Namibian Government, the Namibia Sport Commission, the Namibian business sector and rugby clubs and coaches.

The Namibia Rugby Union could forfeit more than N$5 million in High Performance grants from the International Rugby Union (IRB) if it does not qualify for the next Rugby World Cup in 2015.

This was confirmed by the NRU’s CEO Sybrand de Beer following a visit by the IRB’s Head of Performance and Development, Mark Egan to Namibia over the weekend.

Namibia currently receives an annual High Performance grant of 80 000 Euro from the IRB, while it will receive an additional 450 000 Euro if it qualifies for Rugby World Cup 2015.

Namibia failed to qualify for the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens after winning only two of its five matches at the African Sevens tournament in Morocco over the weekend.

Only the top two nations qualified for next year’s World Cup, and Namibia’s chances were already dealt a big blow when they lost their opening match 17-0 to Tunisia.

In their other group matches they lost 26-7 to Zimbabwe, but then beat the Ivory Coast 19-10 to qualify for the Bowl competition.

The Namibian rugby selectors have announced a training squad of 63 players that will start training on Monday, October 1, in preparation for the Four Nations Rugby tournament against Spain, Zimbabwe and SA Barbarians in November.

The squad is dominated by players from Premier League champions Western Suburbs, who have 20 players, and United, who have 22 players in the squad.

Wanderers have 9 players in the group, while Unam have 3 players and Kudus and Mariental 2 each.

Danie Vermeulen has been re-appointed as Namibian rugby coach for a further six months but he will be assisted by Jood Oppermann and Walter Donn as specialist forward and backline coach respectively.

The president of the Namibia Rugby Union Bradley Basson made this announcement on Thursday, saying that their positions would be re-evaluated after the 2013 Vodacom Cup series.

The Namibia Rugby Union will host a Four-Nations Tournament in Windhoek in November with the aim of bringing the pride back into Namibian rugby and to get sponsors and the public back on its side.

The NRU’s CEO Sybrand de Beer said that Spain, Zimbabwe and a South African Barbarians team would compete in the tournament that has provisionally been set for 10 - 17 November.