WINDHOEK – The Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) and Windhoek Draught have once again joined forces to host the 2nd edition of the Windhoek Draught Tri-Nations Rugby Series, slated for November 8-16 at the Hage Geingob Stadium.
This year’s participants are hosts Namibia, Kenya and Zimbabwe. The three participants are also part of the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) Pool 1 A teams that will contest the final round of the International Rugby Union (IRB) World Cup (RWC) 2015 qualification matches, that will determine who joins South Africa as African participants at the 2015 global showpiece in London.
All three teams are aiming to utilize the tri-nations series as an opportunity to prepare for next year’s final round of qualifications to the next World Cup. The series will also provide the teams and spectators with excellent African test rugby.
Zimbabwe is expected to arrive in Windhoek on November 6 to acclimatize and get ready for the opening match against Namibia, scheduled for November 8 at 20h00. The last time the two sides met was during last year’s tri-nations series and Namibia was the winner by 37-33.
Namibia will have their best players such as Andre Schlechter, Jaco Engels, Tinus du Plessis, Rohan Kitshoff, Eugene Jantjies, Darryl de la Harpe, Sergio de la Harpe, Theuns Kotze, Heinrich Smit and Chrysander Botha in action. The Namibian coaching team has recalled most of the players that were victorious in Senegal in June this year, where Namibia beat Senegal and Tunisia gained promotion to the CAR Pool 1-A.
Kenya is expected to arrive in Windhoek on November 10. Their first match will be against Zimbabwe on November 12 at 20h00.
The last match will be played between Namibia and Kenya on November 16 with the kick-off time set for 17h15. The NRU is arranging a day full of rugby festivities which will kick-off with a Get Into Rugby (GIR) tournament for the youngsters, where teams from Katima, Rundu, Oshakati, Walvis Bay, Windhoek and Keetmanshoop will participate.
With Namibia having been awarded the privilege to host the U/19 CAR 1 A tournament in August next year, the success of the tri-nations series will send a message to CAR that Namibia is ready to host tournaments of this magnitude on home soil.
Entrance fee for all the matches is N$20 per adult and all children under 18 will enter free of charge.
By Staff Reporter