Namibia through to face Zimbabwe

Namibia will meet Zimbabwe in the Rugby Africa Cup semifinals on Wednesday after both teams posted unconvincing victories against Burkina Faso and Uganda respectively. 

Zimbabwe seemed to be heading for an easy win against Uganda when they led 22-0 at halftime, but the Cranes made a great comeback before falling short, as Zimbabwe clinched a thriller 22-20. 

Namibia had it easier against Burkina Faso, running in six tries in a 38-5 win, but they took a while to get going. Their forwards soon asserted themselves but the backs wasted opportunities, with a Danco Burger try disallowed for a knock-on, and by the half-hour mark the score was still 0-0. 

Rightwing Quirione Majiedt finally got the breakthrough when he pounced onto a looseball and tore away to dot down, and then turned provider to send fullback JC Nel away for the try. Denzo Bruwer added both conversions to give Namibia a 14-0 halftime lead.

Namibia’s attacks finally started to gain cohesion in the second half as they ran in some great tries.

Majiedt was once again the instigator for their third, and his second try, bursting clear through the midfield after a quick short pass from Alcino Izaacs, to go over, while eighthman Adriaan Booysen barged through after a storming run. 

Substitute hooker Wicus Jacobs also scored a fine solo try and Peter Diergaardt finished off a quick backline attack for their sixth try, before Burkina Faso got a late consolation try.

Captain Danco Burger, who took over the kicking duties in the second half added two conversions – one a great kick from the touchline, but he was erratic and also missed two easy kicks.

Namibia coach Allister Coetzee said they didnt get off to a good start. 

“We didnt get off to the start we wanted especiallly in the first half, there are no excuses, we were really off-colour. We made a lot of unforced errors, the set-pieces and especially the line-outs were not accurate enough to apply pressure through accurate lineouts and executing plays from lineouts,” he said. 

“The other important thing was that we had no scoreboard pressure, that we could put on them. We missed a couple of simple kicks and normally that builds mometum, but on top of that we conceded seven penalties in the first half, which is too high. Obviously because of all our mistakes Burkina Faso grew in confidence and they really came at us and put us under pressure defensively,” he added.

Coetzee said Majiedt’s opening try helped to ease the pressure on them. 

“Its almost like we were tring too hard and making mistakes, but then we got the intercept try by Quirione Majiedt and after that there was a little bit more freedom, we got the score on the board and the pressure was off,” he said. 

“During halftime we addressed a few areas and it was basically the fundamentals that let us down, so we tightened that up a bit, our breakdown and lineout positioning, and scored a couple of tries in the second half which got us the win in the end, so that’s five points from the first game,” he added.

Kenya are also through to the semifinals after beating Senegal 36-17 on Saturday. They will meet Algeriain the semifinals after the North Africans beat the Ivory Coast 32-12.