Rugby

MTCâ??s N$2 million-a-year sponsorship of Namibian rugby is under threat following their bitter wrangle with the Namibia Rugby Union that erupted before Namibiaâ??s friendly match against Vodacom Western Province on June 7.

Windhoek High School beat HTS 15-0 in a rugby match that formed part of the FNB Classic Clashes series on Saturday afternoon.

A big crowd of several thousand people turned out to watch traditional rugby rivals WHS and HTS at â??Vegkopâ? â?? WHSâ??s rugby stadium.

United got their Premier League campaign back on track on with a convincing 61-3 victory against Grootfontein on Saturday.

United were rock bottom of the log before the match after losing two of their first three matches, but gave an impressive display of attacking rugby to indicate that they could still be a force in this yearâ??s title race. Then again, Grootfontein did not offer much resistance as United dominated possession and ran Grootfontein ragged.

Wanderers moved up to third position on the MTC Rugby Premier League log after their 27-13 victory against Rehoboth last Thursday.

Wanderers gained a bonus point by scoring four tries through prop JM Meyer, centre Regardt Kruger, wing Pieter Lensing and scrumhalf Bertus de Jager, while fullback Morne du Plessis added two conversions and a penalty.

Namibia had to pull out all the stops to beat Senegal 13-10 in their Rugby World Cup qualifying match in Senegal on Saturday.
Senegal held the lead for most of the match and seemed to be heading for a shock victory before a try by Namibian captain Jacques Nieuwenhuis with three minutes to go gave Namibia a late victory.

Namibian rugby coach John Williams has made four changes to the national team that lost 45-6 to Western Province last Saturday, in preparation for this coming Saturdayâ??s 2011 World Cup qualifying match against Senegal.

Namibian coach John Williams said he was satisfied with the Welwitschia XVâ??s performance, after their 45-6 defeat to Vodacom Western Province on Saturday.

â??These guys are professionals and we are not as fit as they are. But we held our own in the first half and for half of the second half. They got a couple of lucky tries in the first half and if our defence held then maybe it would have been a different game. We also missed two tries when the score was 14-6 so if we got them, we would have been in with a chance. But all credit to Western Province, they played well and when it mattered, when we got tired, they capitalised on our mistakes,â? he said.

A late flurry of tries gave Vodacom Western Province an emphatic 45-6 victory against a Welwitschia XV at the Hage Geingob Stadium on Saturday.

The scoreline however did not give a true reflection of the match as Province only held a 19-6 lead for most of the second half. But the floodgates finally opened as Province ran in four tries in the final ten minutes for a convincing victory.

Four new caps have been included in the Welwitschia Invitational Rugby team to play Vodacom Western Province in a friendly on Saturday afternoon.

Centres Jaco van Zyl and David Philander, flanker PJ van Lill and lock Eugene Forbes are the new caps for the match which will serve as preparation for the World Cup qualifier against Senegal a week later.

The friendly rugby match between a Namibian invitation team and Vodacom Western province will go ahead this weekend after MTC and the Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) resolved their differences.

MTC had earlier objected to the staging of the game because FNB Namibiaâ??s sponsorship was in conflict with MTCâ??s rights on the national team.