Otniel Hembapu
WINDHOEK – Still winless and lingering at the bottom of the Northern Pool log table of the SuperSport Rugby Challenge, Namibia rugby second stringers, the Windhoek Draught Welwitschias will travel to Kempton Park, South Africa to confront Hino Valke.
The Namibians will on Saturday lock horns with Valke at Barnard Stadium in Kempton Park, as they continue their search for a first 2018 SuperSport Rugby Challenge victory, having lost all their four opening fixtures and currently sit bottom of the 5-team Northern Pool log table with only one point.
The Windhoek Draught Welwitschias are drawn in the Northern group of the competition alongside top guns Blue Bulls, Golden Lions and Pumas and Valke, who they face this weekend in a return leg. Valke won the first leg 39-7.
The obvious theme taking shape halfway through the group stages of the competition may be that there are three unbeaten sides (iCollege Pumas, Province and the Toyota Free State XV) and three who are yet to win (the Windhoek Draught Welwitschias, EP Elephants and the Leopards) in the tournament, but not one team is running away with its pool as of yet.
In each pool, the top three teams are all still in contention, not only for the playoff stages, they are also still in contention to top the groups.
Namibia endured a tough ride during last year’s edition, which saw the Welwitschias winning only one match from their eight outings in total and will thus this year be expected to deliver a much improved performance.
The SuperSport Rugby Challenge is the secondary domestic rugby union competition in South Africa and the long-term successor of the Vodacom Cup competition. The competition is organised by the South African Rugby Union (SARU) and features all fourteen South African provincial unions plus Namibian side the Welwitschias.
For this year, the format of the tournament will again see five teams battle it out in each of the North, South and Central pools, with all 14 unions and Namibia taking part in what promises to be another exciting opportunity for new prospects to emerge and more fans to get the opportunity to see their heroes in action on their doorstep.