Maqonda Ndlovu
Western Suburbs Rugby Club narrowly beat crosstown rivals University of Namibia by a 33-34 scoreline in the 2023 Namibia Premier Division Rugby League at the Unam Rugby Stadium on Saturday to cement their top four finish.
The students started off brightly, taking a 17-14 lead midway through the first half, but indiscipline saw them concede many penalties, which Suburbs utilised to good effect.
Unam were the first on the scoresheet when Aljarreau Zaahl converted a penalty two minutes into the match.
However, Suburbs struck back with an unconverted try through Dhale Cloete with 10 minutes of the match played, before Unam crossed the white line four minutes later by Titus Shareave.
Zaahl converted to make the scoreline 10-5 in favour of the students.
Two minutes later, Suburbs converted a penalty through Bronwon Willemse before Unam’s Rowan Jansen touched down for another converted try to make it 17-8 for Unam.
From there on, Suburbs took control of the match, forcing Unam to concede a lot of penalties with kickers Willemse and Justin Nel utilising their boots in between a try by Ronald Vogel.
By halftime, Suburbs were leading 20-28.
Going into the second half, Suburbs missed two penalties in the beginning of the half before both teams scored three pointers.
Suburbs continued with their tactics of forcing errors from Unam, as the students became anxious to try and catch up to close the gap between the two teams on the log.
In the end, two late tries from Unam were not enough as both conversions were missed with the match ending 33-34 for Suburbs.
In total, Unam scored four tries, two conversions, two penalties and a drop goal, while Suburbs scored three tries, two conversions and five penalties.
In other matches played on Saturday, Grootfontein beat Reho Falcons 45-44 in Grootfontein, while at the coast, log leaders Wanderers stretched their advantage at the top by beating second place Kudus 15-17 away from home.
Finally, in Rehoboth, the home team lost to Trustco United 27-30.
The results mean Wanderers top the log with 42 points ahead of Kudus on 39 points in second place and third placed Trustco United have 38.
Suburbs complete the semi-final position with 29 points while Unam are fifth with 23 points ahead of sixth placed Rehoboth on 21 points.
Grootfontein are seventh with 17 points while Reho Falcons anchor the log with 12 points after 10 rounds of matches played so far in the season.