Despite the dismal performance at last year’s Rugby World in Japan and the unceasing internal bickering at the headquarters of the Namibia Rugby Union (NRU), the country’s senior rugby side, the Welwitschias, this week received a massive morale boost.
The world rugby governing body, World Rugby, this week released the latest global rankings and statistics following the 2019 rugby world cup held in Japan. The latest ratings saw Namibia slightly improve her standing globally when it climbed one place on the rankings radar.
Namibia slightly improved by climbing one place from 24 to 23, which saw the Welwitschias leapfrog the likes of Russia, Netherlands and continental rivals Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda amongst others.
The improved rankings equally propelled Namibia in touching distance of Canada, Hong Kong and Portugal, who are all placed in that order on the new rankings.
Last year, Namibia made her sixth consecutive appearance at the Rugby World Cup but for the umpteenth time failed to secure that elusive first ever win at the global rugby showpiece.
Namibia lost all three of her four pool matches against neighbours and eventual 2019 World Cup winners South Africa, New Zealand and Italy, while their final pool match against Canada was unfortunately cancelled due to bad weather – bringing to an end another dismal world cup campaign for the southern African country.
World rugby rankings are calculated using a points’ exchange system, in which sides take points off each other based on the match results – meaning whatever one side gains, the other loses. The exchanges are based on the match results, the relative strength of each team, and the margin of victory, and there is an allowance for home advantage.
Points exchanges are doubled during the World Cups to recognise the unique importance of this event, but all other full international matches are treated the same, to be as fair as possible to countries playing a different mix of friendly and competitive matches across the world.
Any match that is not a full international between two member countries does not count at all. All member countries have a rating, typically between 0 and 100. The top side in the world will normally have a rating above 90.
ohembapu@nepc.com.na