WINDHOEK – Despite the Namibia Rugby Union’s financial tribulations, the union’s chief executive officer, Sybrand de Beer, confirmed to New Era Sport yesterday that despite the recent financial woes the second round of the highly awaited Navachab Gold Mine Regional Cup will commence on October 19 as planned and will be played in four different regions.
De Beer brushed aside any doubts of an intermission and assured that all the rounds of matches of the regional league cup would take place as earlier scheduled. He said that games would be played in four yet-to-be announced regions, with the aim of taking the games closer to the people.
Fierce rugby action can be expected when the second round kicks off as the TISAN (Tertiary Institutes Sports Association of Namibia) rugby team have also joined the regional competition, that will also see six other regional teams battle it out against a formidable Welwitschias invitational team, that will consist of the country’s senior and U/19 national players.
The Navachab Gold Mine Regional Cup is a new rugby spectacle that was introduced this year with the aim of developing competition at regional level, while also reforming regional rugby into a premier competition, where much faster and harder rugby can be expected.
Another notable objective of the competition is to unearth a new pool of players of high quality in terms of conditioning, which will then feed the national senior team and the junior national teams as well.