Otniel Hembapu
Windhoek-Phil Davies, the head coach of Namibia’s senior rugby team, the Welwitschias, has called up a 27-member squad to represent the country at the upcoming 12th edition of the Nations Cup in Montevideo, Uruguay, starting on June 10.
Namibia is in Pool A alongside host country Uruguay and Argentina, while Pool B consists of Emerging Italy, Spain and Russia. Namibia’s first clash will be against Spain in the June 10 match before taking on Emerging Italy on Wednesday, June 14.
Namibia will then be back in action again to take on Russia on June 18, in what will doubtless be a crucial encounter for the Namibians. Namibia selected a strong team of players, which includes some highly experienced players that represented the country at the last Rugby World Cup, as well as some highly promising home-based young players that have represented the country continentally.
The 2017 Nations Cup will be the first ever tournament to be played outside of Romania and without their national team, with Uruguay hosting the competition. As in 2016, the tournament will feature six teams split in two pools of three, where the three European teams: Emerging Italy, Russia and Spain, will play the other three teams: Argentina XV, Namibia and Uruguay.
The squad is as follows: PROPS: Casper Viviers, AJ de Klerk, Collen Smith, Johannes Coetzee.
Standby: Andries Rousseau. HOOKERS: Torsten van Jaarsveld, Louis van der Westhuizen, Shaun du Pree. Standby: Gerhard Lötter. LOCKS: Tjiuee Uanivi, Janco Venter, Ruan Ludick, Mahepisa Tjeriko, Standby: Muniovita Kasiringua. BACK ROW: Wian Conradie, PJ van Lill, Renaldo Bothma (Captain), Johan Retief, Christo van der Merwe. Standby: Leneve Damens. SCRUM HALVES: Eugene Jantjies, Damian Stevens. Standby: Cameron Klassen. FLY HALVES: Theuns Kotze (Vice-captain), Cliven Loubser. Standby: MP Pretorius. CENTERS: Darryl de la Harpe, JC Greyling, Justin Newman, Johan Deysel. Standby: Francois Wiese. BACK: Johan Tromp, Lesley Klim, Gino Wilson, Chrysander Botha.
Standby: David Philander.