Maurice Kambukwe

WINDHOEK - Despite being pooled with reigning world champions New Zealand and two-time World Cup winners South Africa in Group B of the 2019 World Cup, one of Namibia’s rugby greats Walter Don strongly believes the Welwitschias stand a great chance of bagging their first ever win at the global rugby centrepiece starting this Friday in Japan.

Don, former assistant coach of Namibia’s senior rugby fifteen the Welwitschias and coach of local rugby giants Western Suburbs, yesterday expressed confidence and belief in the 31-man selected to do duty for Namibia at the World Cup, saying they have what it takes to steal international headlines with a surprise victory.

Namibia is in Group B of the 2019 World Cup alongside New Zealand, South Africa, Italy and Canada, and Don is convinced Namibia stands a decent chance of outmuscling Canada when they square off in their last group match on 13 October. 

“I think the selection of players was reasonably okay, and it’s always good to see young players being exposed to international rugby and to that particular environment.  But, leaving some of our most experienced players, which is somehow the case this time around, will have a little impact on the team’s performance but that is something we will leave to the coach to think about. We can compete but the pool that we are in is extremely tough. To be realistic, we stand a good chance of beating Canada. It is very possible,” added an upbeat Don.

The ex-Welwitschias assistant gaffer also took the opportunity to urge all Namibians to believe and rally behind the team, saying Namibia’s first ever World Cup win could finally be on the horizon.  Namibia faces Italy on 20 September in their opening match, before taking neighbours South Africa on 28 September and then reigning world champions New Zealand on 6 October. Namibia’s last group match will be against Canada on 13 October.