NRU hunts for new rugby coach

THE Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) has said it plans to appoint new national coaching staff before the end of the week.

This follows the sudden resignation of Namibia rugby head coach, Danie Vermeulen, and his brother Gielie Vermeulen last Friday. Gielie was the assistant coach of the national side.Other officials who resigned together with the two coaches were team manager, John Archer, biokineticist Henry Boshoff and Ben Viljoen, who is the team doctor.NRU co-president Dirk Conradie told The Namibian Sport yesterday that Executive Committee had identified replacements for the two brothers after they failed to hold trials for the selection of players to the national team.”We (the executive members) have already looked at the replacements and we will decide today (yesterday afternoon), on who will take charge of the rugby team.We cannot tolerate people who only want to select players of their choice, leaving out the majority who also need to be given a chance,” said Conradie.But Gielie Vermeulen told The Namibian Sport yesterday that it was impossible for the coaching team to hold national team trials just over two weeks before an international match.”We were just told last week that we should hold trials.This was on short notice and thought it will not be in the interest of what we have been working on up to this stage,” Vermeulen said.He said his coaching team had built a team from the recent encounters against two South African provincial sides (Free State Cheetahs and Golden Lions) as well as the South African A side.”These matches were used as trials as we were trying out all the combinations for a team that will play in the Africa Cup.Now they say we should have trials just over two weeks before we play Zambia away.It is not possible and that’s one of the reasons we resigned,” he said.Namibia lost all three matches against the South Africans and are now billed to face Zambia in an Africa Cup match in Lusaka on August 18.Namibia will then play Kenya towards the end of August at home, before facing Zimbabwe in a semi-final match if they beat both Kenya and Zambia.The Vermeulen brothers have not registered a single victory for Namibia since taking charge of the national team earlier this year.They have so far lost four consecutive international matches.Gielie added that there were numerous problems facing the national rugby team concerning the logistics of the team during training camps.He said the coaching staff had been struggling to secure a gymnasium for the team that was preparing for match against the South African sides, and were currently still in the same situation.He added that players who travel from Rehoboth and Okahandja for training ought to be paid petrol allowances, but up to now none had been paid.He also added that Deon Mouton’s vehicle, a wing for the national side, was involved in an accident as he was travelling back to Rehoboth from training, but did not get payment for the damage to his vehicle, as the NRU promised.He has since repaired the vehicle with his own money.Gielie said players, such as Rian van Wyk, Jood Opperman and Koos Agenbach, had since stopped playing for the national side, citing problems within the NRU.Gielie was the assistant coach of the national side.Other officials who resigned together with the two coaches were team manager, John Archer, biokineticist Henry Boshoff and Ben Viljoen, who is the team doctor.NRU co-president Dirk Conradie told The Namibian Sport yesterday that Executive Committee had identified replacements for the two brothers after they failed to hold trials for the selection of players to the national team.”We (the executive members) have already looked at the replacements and we will decide today (yesterday afternoon), on who will take charge of the rugby team.We cannot tolerate people who only want to select players of their choice, leaving out the majority who also need to be given a chance,” said Conradie.But Gielie Vermeulen told The Namibian Sport yesterday that it was impossible for the coaching team to hold national team trials just over two weeks before an international match.”We were just told last week that we should hold trials.This was on short notice and thought it will not be in the interest of what we have been working on up to this stage,” Vermeulen said.He said his coaching team had built a team from the recent encounters against two South African provincial sides (Free State Cheetahs and Golden Lions) as well as the South African A side.”These matches were used as trials as we were trying out all the combinations for a team that will play in the Africa Cup.Now they say we should have trials just over two weeks before we play Zambia away.It is not possible and that’s one of the reasons we resigned,” he said.Namibia lost all three matches against the South Africans and are now billed to face Zambia in an Africa Cup match in Lusaka on August 18.Namibia will then play Kenya towards the end of August at home, before facing Zimbabwe in a semi-final match if they beat both Kenya and Zambia.The Vermeulen brothers have not registered a single victory for Namibia since taking charge of the national team earlier this year.They have so far lost four consecutive international matches.Gielie added that there were numerous problems facing the national rugby team concerning the logistics of the team during training camps.He said the coaching staff had been struggling to secure a gymnasium for the team that was preparing for match against the South African sides, and were currently still in the same situation.He added that players who travel from Rehoboth and Okahandja for training ought to be paid petrol allowances, but up to now none had been paid.He also added that Deon Mouton’s vehicle, a wing for the national side, was involved in an accident as he was travelling back to Rehoboth from training, but did not get payment for the damage to his vehicle, as the NRU promised.He has since repaired the vehicle with his own money.Gielie said players, such as Rian van Wyk, Jood Opperman and Koos Agenbach, had since stopped playing for the national side, citing problems within the NRU.