Wanderers sound a warning 

Defending champions FNB Wanderers took a substantial lead in the Namibia Rugby Premier League title race while sending out a stern warning to their rivals with a 70-18 victory against FNB Grootfontein on Saturday. 

In other matches, Trustco United pulled off a valuable 28-26 away win against FNB Western Suburbs; FNB Unam beat FNB Dolphins 49-22 at the coast; and Reho Falcons beat Rehoboth 25-21 at Rehoboth. 

Heading into their match against Wanderers, Grootfontein were seen as worthy challengers after some impressive early season performances, but their chances of victory soon evaporated against a well-drilled outfit. 

Louis Grobbelaar gave Grootfontein the lead with a penalty but Wanderers soon went 7-3 ahead after Danie van der Merwe was sent over behind the posts with Denzyl Bruwer converting. 

Another Grobbelaar penalty reduced the gap to 7-6, but that’s the closest they got as Wanderers clicked into gear to gradually pull away. 

Johnny Mwenyo went over after a great sidestep tore Grootfontein’s defence to shreds, while Bruwer dotted down after a sweeping backline attack.

Grootfontein reduced the gap to 21-13 when captain Wicus Jacobs went over from a maul, but further tries by Mwenyo, Danco Burger, and Bruwer put them 42-13 ahead by the halftime break. 

Danie van der Merwe added his second try early in the second half but Grootfontein fought back courageously and Eloff du Plessis finally went over to make the score 49-18. 

Wanderers, however, stepped up a gear and further tries by Nico Maartens, Liam Compion and a penalty try completed an emphatic victory. 

It was a great team performance, while flyhalf Bruwer once again had a field day with a personal tally of 28 points.

After the match centre Danco Burger said they had stuck to their game plan. 

“Throughout the week we said we wanted a fast start and stay true to our structures, and that’s what we did today so I’m very grateful for our forwards who stuck in there. It was a very hard fight for them, especially in the scrums and the lineouts but I think in the end we gelled to gether and played nicely as a unit and all credit to the team,” he said. 

That win put Wanderers 10 points ahead of FNB Kudus at the top of the log, but Burger said they will not get ahead of themselves. 

“I won’t say we have got one hand on the title –  we will just take it week by week and step by step. We are building, on the team culture, and as individuals so we focus game by game and hopefully that will build up towards the end goal which is the title,” he said. 

Grootfontein captain Wicus Jacobs said Wanderers deserved the win. 

“It’s definitely a bitter pill to swallow and my team was just not clinical today. Wanderers totally outplayed us with the line speed that they brought and the quickness with moving the ball. In the second half we held them at stages but didn’t finish off our chances and with some tries slipping here and there it resulted in this big score,” he said. 

Jacobs, however, said they still had high hopes for the rest of the season. 

“I told my boys it’s a bit of a setback, but it doesn’t help if we put our heads down, we just have to go back to the drawing board. Our next match is against Unam ar home and I think the guys still have a lot of pride so Im sure we will come back,” he said. 

Wanderers are now top of the log on 23 points, followed by Kudus on 13, although they have a match in hand. United are third on 11 points, followed by Grootfontein (10), Unam and Suburbs on seven each, Rehoboth (6), Reho Falcon (5) and Dolphins (0).