The Windhoek Draught Welwitschias rugby national team will be hoping to collect maximum points when they take on South Africa’s Boland Kavaliers in the ongoing Mzansi Challenge in the capital tomorrow.
This Round 10 match will start at 16h00 at the Hage Geingob stadium and Namibia will be looking forward to getting the
best out of the encounter. They have so far played a total of seven matches, of which they have managed to win two.
In their last match played in Windhoek on 13 May, the Welwitschias beat Kenya’s Simbas 35-28. On 15 April, they beat the Zimbabwe Goshawks in Zimbabwe 31-26.
Speaking to this publication yesterday, coach Chrysander Botha said this
weekend’s encounter would be different as they intend to go for crucial points.
“It’s a game we want to win. We have a great mindset heading into the match and all the boys are positive. We had a training session this morning and it went well and the boys look ready,” he said.
In terms of injury concerns, Botha said they have a few players ruled out but it won’t have an impact on the team’s overall performance.
“We have a couple of players ruled
out but this will definitely give a chance to other players to step in and do what they can,” he said. Reflecting on the season thus far, the coach said there were a lot of ups and downs but it’s important that
the team have tested themselves in every aspect.
“It has been a tough ride… at the same time, it is a huge learning curve for us.
We have learned so much along the way and we will continue doing so.”
“We had two games where we lost narrowly as we were supposed to pick up points but we just couldn’t capitalise on those, but moving forward we are hoping to collect points.”
The narrow defeats were against the San Clemente Rhinos 24-25 on 22 April in Windhoek and 20-23 against Leopards in Walvis Bay on 6 May.
Namibia are contesting the Mzansi Challenge, otherwise known as Currie
Cup Division 1, against nine other
teams.
They are currently eighth on the log with 12 points.
– mkambukwe@nepc.com.na