Windhoek
While the second strings Namibian rugby fifteen, the Welwitschias, are finding the going extremely tough in the South African Provincial Curie Cup tourney – please don’t despair, a fairly unknown young lad is making amazing strides in domestic rugby.
Born in the rugby mad southern town of Mariental in 1996, Unam’s fast as lightning winger Unomasa Kavita has caught the eye of the neutral rugby follower, with splendid performances in only his debut season in topflight rugby.
A protégé of the revered Danie Joubert Combined Primary School in Mariental, Uno started fiddling with the oval ball at an early age playing “tjokker rugby” at school, juggling between football and athletics.
The versatile strongly built young lad played football as a respected midfielder for the town’s youth Under-15’s football club and also showed his competitors a clean pair of heels on the athletics track.
A mean sprinter in the 200 metres, the well built Uno also excelled in the long jump that saw him claim a gold medal in the COSSSASA Games in Harare, Zimbabwe in 2013 with an astonishing leap of 7. 05 metres.
Trapped in a predominantly rugby mad school during his formative years, it was only fitting that the young boy would be hooked to the oval ball.
“I played in the A teams since I started playing rugby at primary school but I had to start in the third team when I enrolled at Windhoek High School (WHS) in 2013,” reveals Kavita.
After a season with the school’s third strings, the exciting winger was deservedly drafted into the school’s first team the following year and played a pivotal role in WHS’ triumph in the Schools Super League.
However, the speedy winger only rose to prominence when he moved to Unam to further his academic aspirations last year. “I struggled with an assortment of niggling injuries and could not make it into the starting line-up but mostly played as a part-time player.”
Uno was amongst the most outstanding performers during Namibia’s participation in the IRB Under-20 World Trophy in Harare, Zimbabwe at the beginning of this year.
His four tries in the highly competitive eight-team youth tourney propelled Namibia to an overall 4th place finish and the boy was duly rewarded with a place in the students’ star-studded first team.
Uno played in each of every minute of Unam’s league campaign this term and only missed three matches when he was on national duty with the Under-20’s in Zimbabwe.
His two tries against Western Suburbs recently put the Namibian champions in touching distance of early pacesetters Wanderers.