Windhoek
The Welwitschias’ inspirational captain Jacques Burger is a man brimming with confidence and hope for the future, following their remarkable 39-19 victory over the visiting Russians at a packed Hage Geingob Stadium on Saturday.
Popularly referred to as the ‘chief wolf’ of his English club Saracens, the Namibian veteran skipper helped the Welwitschias deliver one of their best performances in recent times, as they outplayed the Russians in the first of their two Windhoek Draught Friendship Test Series matches in Windhoek. The second game will take place next Saturday at the same venue.
“I’m very impressed with our overall performance and I think it goes to show that we can still improve our game and grow stronger as a team. We have a lot of youngsters that are eager to prove themselves and that’s inspiring.
“Today’s win was very important for the team going into the next clash. We are more motivated and believe we can do better in our upcoming match,” said Burger in the post-match interview.
“Since most of the players in the squad played together for the first, I think it’s very important for us to get closer and spend more time together as a team, even off the pitch. But for now we should just continue with what we did today and hopefully we’ll be well prepared and ready ahead of the World Cup,” added Burger who was playing his first Test on home soil since 2009.
As for the Welwitschias’ gallant victory, Namibia’s French-based flyhalf Theuns Kotzè opened the scoring with a 4th minute penalty but the visitors then stunned the 3 000-strong crowd with a well worked try from winger Igor Galinovsky, which was successfully converted by flyhalf Yuri Kushnarev to give the Russians a 7-3 lead.
The influence of newly appointed back-line coach Pieter Rossouw was immediately evident as the Namibian backs attacked with accuracy and pace not seen by Namibian fans in a long time.
Man of the match Russell van Wyk scored a brilliant try after the Namibians won a set-phase ball and played it wide and Van Wyk, only in his second Test appearance, recorded the first of his two Test tries to restore Namibia’s lead.
Kotzé converted to take the score to 13-7 but also missed at least four shots at goal, which could have given Namibia a comfortable lead at the break. The Russians on the other hand managed to hold on to possession and work the ball through a couple of phases but at least four try-scoring opportunities were wasted through handling errors. At the sound of the half-time horn they were finally awarded for their enterprising approach when No. 8 Viktor Gresev crashed over in the corner for an unconverted try, finishing the opening half at 13-12 in favour of Namibia.
The second half started with Kotzè missing yet another attempt at goal and Russia twice getting close to scoring from line-out drives, only to be stopped by a well-organised Namibian defence. The injection of Namibia’s replacements took the game from Russia’s reach.
In the 10th minute of the 2nd half, Exeter Chiefs fullback Chrysander Botha took a quick tap and linked up with Johan Tromp who had moved to the wing. Tromp sent scrumhalf Eugene Jantjies away for one of the best tries of the game. Kotzè converted to take the score to 20-12.
Namibia’s third try and Van Wyk’s second try of the match came after they won a lineout ball and played it wide, and finally broke the visitors’ resistance. Trailing by 25-12 and with 20 minutes remaining the Russians were starting to feel the effects of only arriving in Windhoek on Thursday evening, as well as the altitude.
The Russians however launched one attack after another but just could not break through a resilient Namibian defence. Instead they saw Namibia put the result beyond any doubt when replacement centre JC Greyling intercepted and ran half the length of the field to score under the posts.
At 32-12 it was hard to see the Russians prevent a first defeat to Namibia but the visitors never gave up and were rewarded in the form of a try by replacement Danila Chegadoav.
The Namibians were not yet done and with two minutes remaining Tromp put in a superb chase after a high kick. He gathered to send Leopards centre Johan Deysel away for Namibia’s fifth try. Jantjies converted to cap an unforgettable performance by Namibia. The final score 39-19.