THE depth and strength of Namibian rugby will be tested to the limit this weekend when various national and local competitions take place.
The national side will play Spain in the first round of the Nations Cup in Uruguay, while the Welwitschias will host the Golden Lions in the SuperSport Challenge in Windhoek. Besides that club rugby will continue, with matches all over Namibia in the premier, reserve and regional first leagues.
The Nations Cup will be an important pointer with regard to Namibia’s international stature and has added significance, a year before the qualifiers for the 2019 World Cup begin.
Namibia, Spain and Russia will compete along with hosts Uruguay, as well as Emerging Italy and an Argentina XV.
A close contest can be expected judging by World Rugby’s rankings, with Spain ranked 18th in the world, Namibia 19th, Russia 20th and Uruguay 21st, while Argentina (ninth) and Italy (15th) will also send strong emerging teams.
Namibia’s world ranking has remained stable since the 2015 World Cup when they were 20th, but there have been some interesting changes amongst other nations.
Nations like Japan (11), Georgia (12), Romania (16) and even Germany (22) have improved a lot, while former stalwarts like South Africa (seventh), Samoa (14), Italy (15) and Canada (23) have regressed.
Namibia has won the Nations Cup once before in 2010, while they came third last year, and with a strong squad they will be out to improve on that this year.
The team is captained by the Blue Bulls firebrand eighthman Renaldo Bothma and includes numerous stalwarts from the 2015 World Cup campaign, like PJ van Lill, Tjiuee Uanivi, Aranos Coetzee and Torsten van Jaarsveld amongst the forwards, and Theuns Kotze, Eugene Jantjies, Darryl de la Harpe and Chrysander Botha amongst the backs.
There are also several exciting youngsters like 20-year-old fly half Cliven Loubser, the wing backs, Gino Wilson and Lesley Klim, and amongst the forwards, Janco Venter, Wian Conradie and Christo van der Merwe.
Namibia’s match against Spain starts at 15h00 Namibian time on Saturday at the Estadio Charrua in Montevideo.
Back home, the Windhoek Lager Welwitschias will continue their arduous campaign in the SuperSport Challenge when they host the powerful Golden Lions at 15h00 on Saturday.
The Lions won the first-leg encounter 112-14 in Johannesburg, and with a young and inexperienced side, the Welwitschias can expect another tough outing.
The team will be captained by one of the latest call-ups to the squad, United lock Winmar Rust, and includes several other new players like Dirk van Weidts, Ethan Beukes, Janre du Toit, Collins Omalu, Orbert Nortje, Herman Grobler and Adriaan Booysen.
The Lions are currently second in the North Pool on 21 points, but they have a match in hand on the leaders, the Blue Bulls (22 points), and are expected to regain the lead when they take on bottom-of-the-log the Welwitschias (six points).
The Tafel Lager Griquas currently lead the Central Pool on 22 points, ahead of the Free State Cheetahs (20), while Western Province lead the South Pool on 30 points ahead of the Border Bulldogs (16) and Eastern Province Kings (15).
The 10th round of the Namibian Premier League also takes place on Saturday with log leaders Unam facing a tricky away match against Rehoboth.
Unam are still unbeaten and have built up a comfortable lead of 46 points over Wanderers (35) and Western Suburbs (31), but Rehoboth Rugby Club will be a tough opponent on their home turf.
The pick of the Premier League matches will be the encounter at Suburbs Park where Western Suburbs will host Wanderers in a battle for second place on the log.
Suburbs surprised Wanderers with a 25-17 victory in their first round encounter at the Wanderers field and can expect a strong backlash on their home turf.
In other matches, both at the coast, Kudus host Reho Falcon, while Walvis Bay host United.
Unam 2 also has a strong lead in the Reserve League with 46 points, well ahead of Western Suburbs 2 (38) and Wanderers 2 (35).
The Western Region First League is heading for an exciting finish with the West Coast Sharks and the Eastern Bulls both on 31 points, although the unbeaten Bulls from Gobabis have a match in hand.
Grootfontein leads the Northern Region First League on 26 points, ahead of Etosha Lions and Otjiwarongo, both on 18, while Ocean Swallows lead the Southern Region First League on 10 points ahead of Oranjemund on two points.
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