Unam rewriting the record books

NAMIBIA’s defending club rugby champions, Unam started their campaign off in style with a 51-18 victory against Western Suburbs last week and early indications are that they will be tough to topple from their lofty summit.

Last year Unam joined Wanderers as the only team to win three titles in a row since Namibia’s independence in 1990, and another title this year will further entrench their presence in the record books.

They are already on an unbeaten run of 33 matches, which could be an all-time record for lack of historical evidence, but what is known is that since the records began in 1920, only Wanderers have enjoyed a more dominant period of success.

That was back in the Fifties and Sixties when Wanderers won nine titles in 10 years, but besides them, only the Railways team of 1942 to 1945 has won it four times in a row.

Now, having further strengthened their squad with exciting new talent and enjoying the fruits of a long preparation period, it will take some doing to stop them this season.

“I’m happy with our start against Suburbs, but we also contributed to that. We already started training on 7 November last year, we held trials and also played a friendly against United, so we are well prepared for the season,” he said.

“We also got some good new young players who are creating depth in the squad and pressure on the starting 15 to work harder,” he added.

Regarding their win against Suburbs, Diergaardt said they can still do better.

“Our forwards gave us a good foundation to attack from and Suburbs mostly exploited our mistakes, but we have worked hard to correct them.”

Unam travel to Rehoboth on Saturday to take on Reho Falcon, who lost 20-18 to Rehoboth last weekend, and Diergaardt said they would not underestimate them.

“They only lost by two points to Rehoboth and they have some young and enthusiastic players so we will have to be at our best. But we just concentrate on our own performance and try and raise the bar each time. I am not concentrating much on our opponents, but I’m rather trying to unlock our players’ potential,” he said.

Suburbs host United, who lost 24-10 to Wanderers last weekend, and both teams will be determined to get back on track.

Despite the large margin of defeat against Unam, Suburbs managed to contain them and were still in the game trailing 30-18 with 10 minutes to go. Unam’s superior conditioning and fitness, however, told as they scored three late tries to canter to victory.

Suburbs scored two tries against Unam through their speedy backs Nikin Cloete and Collins Omalu, and with other speedsters in the squad like Gino Wilson and Russel van Wyk, as well as the experienced Justin Nel dictating play at fly half, they have an impressive backline. But it is at forward where the battle is normally won and here a tough encounter can be expected against United.

Against Wanderers last weekend, United were trailing 19-0 at halftime, but then launched repeated attacks on Wanderers’ line. Wanderers’ defence, however, stood firm until Riaan van Zyl nipped over for a try with seven minutes to go, but Wanderers sealed their victory with a late try.

Despite the defeat, United coach Jood Opperman was upbeat about their performance.

“We made some basic errors and we have to make better use of our chances and put points on the board. We can’t underestimate Suburbs, but we have a good pack and backline and we are in a good space,” he said.

He said he expected a powerful onslaught from Suburbs on Saturday.

“Suburbs’ pack of forwards have hearts of lions and they will be very tough to beat on their home turf, but it’s very important for us to win this match,” he said.

In another Premier League match on Saturday, Kudus play their first match of the season when they host Rehoboth in Walvis Bay.