Carlos Kambaekwa
The pre-match hype might not be as anywhere near the World’s biggest showpiece (FIFA World Cup finals), but slowly but surely Rugby fever is catching the imagination of quite a few Klipdrift and Brandy bellied oaks who have become addicted to the oval ball.
The curtain for the Rugby World Cup finals opens tonight with hosts France welcoming Argentina’s Pumas in the Group of Death, which also includes Ireland, Georgia and our own ‘Biltongboere’.
Oops! the Welwitchias – thank heavens the powers at Lichtenstein Street have all taken up temporary refuge in Bordeaux and yours truly is unlikely to face the wrath for the mere mentioning of that juicy dried piece of lean meat baptized Biltong.
The Namibian Rugby Fifteen will be making its third consecutive appearance at this prestigious event and open their assault in the six-week long tournament with a date against Ireland on Sunday.
Logic suggests our boys are not in the same mould as pre-favorites South Africa and New Zealand – but the selectors have assembled a team good enough to compete at this level despite the eleventh hour withdrawal of lock Skipper Badenhorst, who is plying his trade with the Sharks in the lucrative South African provincial Currie Cup Competition.
Badenhorst is amongst a horde of locally born players chasing the oval ball beyond Namibian borders and has been considered a vital cog in the team’s lineup, but the burly lock chickened out hours ahead of Namibia’s test against the Springboks at Newlands in Cape Town last month.
The National Rugby Authorities are the moer in with Badenhorst’s hide and seek escapades, and have now called upon the International Rugby Federation and the South African Rugby Union to intervene and prevent the Sharks from fielding the defiant player with immediate effect, until 10 days after completion of the World Cup finals.
Let me doff my Korrie for the Namibian Rugby Union’s stern decision to exercise their constitutional right by grounding this dude who appears to have grown a head the size of the moon for shunning a national call-up.
Otherwise, Badenhorst or not, the show must go on and let us all rally behind our team to hoist the Namibian flag high in France.
Brave Warriors Need Magic
Elsewhere on the continent, the National football team the Brave Warriors will be trying by all means to clear the last hurdle in a desperate bid to qualify for the next edition of the African Cup of Nations to be staged in Ghana next year.
The depleted Warriors side faces a potentially troublesome Ethiopian outfit in Addis Ababa tomorrow, and victory could see the Warriors edging closer to making their second appearance in as many years at the continental showpiece, provided Libya gets a positive result against group leaders Democratic Republic of Congo in Kinshasa.
Even if Libya fails to achieve what looks like the impossible on paper, strange things do happen in football and the Warriors could still slip through the back door as one of the three best-placed runners-up.
As it stands, Group 10 is still wide open and anyone of the four nations still has a mathematical chance of qualification for the finals come 2008.
Who in his or her sober mind ever thought our relatively young and inexperienced Class of 1998 would go to Gabon and get the much-needed result there?
Given the chaotic conditions which preceded the team’s preparation ahead of this crucial clash – yours truly can only count his stars for a miracle to happen – maybe who knows?
In the meantime, I would like to take this opportunity to wish the ailing Warriors’ coach Ben Bamfuchile a speedy recovery.