…turn form book upside down
WINDHOEK – Namibia’s U-20 rugby squad took Hong Kong by storm when they trounced Canada 37-25 in their Pool-B opening match of the annual International Rugby Board (IRB) Junior World Rugby Trophy tournament, at the Hong Kong Football Club Stadium yesterday.
The form book was turned upside down on day one of the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy 2014 in Hong Kong with fancied Canada and Japan both losing their opening Pool B matches to Namibia and Uruguay respectively yesterday.
Second seeds Canada were stunned 37-25 by Namibia, who played a wide and open game that cleverly pushed their bigger opponents around the Hong Kong Football Club pitch and took the sting out of them.
Fly half Chris Arries contributed 17 points and led the way for Namibia with tries coming from scrum half JC Winkler, No 8 Wian Conradie, wing Reinold Benade and replacement back Ascher Coetzee. “It was a hard game but we stuck to our game plan which was to shift the ball out wide and away from their forwards. Our forwards also stood up to them and did us proud,” said Namibia head coach Jan Dames. Namibia now firmly tops Pool-B with 5 points, closely followed by Uruguay with 4 points.
Japan currently occupies 3rd place with 3 points, while Canada is lingering at the bottom of the log with no points yet. “We played poorly and made too many errors, and turned over too much ball and lost to a very good Namibia side that physically beat us up,” said Canada head coach Mike Shelley. Uruguay took 2nd place after beating Japan 33-28 in their opening game. In Pool-A results, Georgia also managed to secure a 34-10 victory in their opening encounter against Tonga, while the USA also had a good start to their campaign after thrashing hosts Hong Kong by 37-10.
Namibia will now face Japan this coming Friday, in an encounter where the Namibian lads would be expected to deliver some blistery performances, if they are to ease some pressure before taking on Uruguay next week. With Japan having lost their opening match at the hands of the highly motivated Uruguay, the Japanese would definitely be out to avenge that defeat on Namibia and hopefully improve their overall standing, heading to their next encounter against Canada. On that note Namibia would be advised to stick to their guns when they confront Japan and aim to put their superior ball-carrying style of play and strength to good use. Namibia has a few advantages going into this match, such as height, strength, and all those qualities would come in handy when action gets underway on Friday. IRB/www.scmp.com
By Staff Reporter