Namibia’s U/20 rugby team coach Chrysander Botha yesterday said their ultimate objective, as a team is to win this year’s Barthés Cup.
It kicks off this weekend until 17 April at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya.
Namibia, along with Madagascar, Senegal, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia and hosts Kenya are the eight teams that will compete in this year’s U/20 Barthés Cup. Namibia is in Group B alongside Zimbabwe, Senegal, and Ivory Coast.
The team was officially sent off by the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) yesterday during a brief ceremony at Safari Hotel, where coach Botha said preparations went well and judging from his players’ overall readiness, they have what it takes to win this year’s nine-day Barthés Cup.
“We have done very well for the past weeks in terms of preparations. Obviously, getting the team together was difficult because we had a couple of guys based in South Africa and some scattered all across the country. But in the end, we managed,” said Botha.
In terms of how far they intend to go in this year’s competition, Botha expressed great confidence that the team have the capacity to go all the way and possibly win the competition.
“We are looking forward to going out there and put out all the hard work and efforts we have put in the past few weeks. We have not invested all this time together just to participate, but to win the competition.”
Team captain Rowan Jansen echoed his gaffer’s sentiments, saying they have prepared well and are mentally and physically ready for the tournament.
“We have to go out there and play our hearts out for the country. I believe we will be able to make the country proud. It was a bit tricky at first when we first joined the camp because we didn’t know each other very well and were still trying to find the combinations, but with time, we start connecting. As we speak, I can confidently say we are ready to go out and make our country proud,” added Jansen.
The U/20 Barthés trophy is the Rugby Africa U/20 championship. Teams compete on an annual basis, and the winners of the competition earn the right to represent the African continent at the World Rugby Junior Trophy.
The championship is named after Jean-Luc Barthé, who was the rugby services manager for Rugby Africa. He passed away in 2016. The tournament began in 2007 with Uganda as the host, which saw Namibia winning the title.
– mkambukwe@nepc.com.na