Welwitschias ready for Cavaliers

The Windhoek Draught Welwitschias take on the Boland Cavaliers in the Mzansi Challenge at the Hage Geingob Stadium tomorrow well-rested and in confident mood.

The two sides are at opposite ends of the log with the Cavaliers lying third on 26 points after five wins, while the Welwitschias are third from bottom on 12 points with only two wins. Coach Chrysander Botha, however, believes that  they have improved a lot, while a rested week will also count in their favour. 

“We had a couple of close games over the past few weeks against the Rhinos, the Leopards, the Zimbabweans and now the Simbas and I can tell you the positivity and the energy in the camp is sky high. We’ve got a good culture amongst the team and the players and its something that we are building on,” he said in an interview with Desert Radio on Wednesday. 

“We had off last week so it was nice to have a break and recover. We had six to seven weeks of rugby that our guys are not used to, it was back-to-back, so the break is well-deserved. We had our first training session back yesterday and I can say that we have been preparing well and there’s a massive energy and culture going on within the team,” he added. 

Boland are one of the form teams in the competition and are still in with a chance of winning the title. SWD Eagles currently lead the log on 30 points from seven matches, but the Valke (26 points from six matches) and the Cavaliers (26 points from seven matches) can both still win the title. 

The Welwitschias, despite being third last, have been competitive throughout the tournament, suffering a few close defeats, and fancy their chances of beating the Cavaliers at home. 

“It would be the cherry on the cake to get a win over one of these South African provincial teams. They are amateur, semi-professional at this stage, with a couple of professional contracted players,” Botha said.

“For us as a group of local players, it’s a stepping stone and there’s been a couple of awesome performances. I dont want to mention names, but there have been some guys that really put up their hands up to be selected for the upcoming Nations Cup and then possibly a World Cup spot moving forward,” he added. 

The Welwitschias team was announced yesterday, with eighthman Prince !Gaoseb captaining the side, while vice-captain and regular centre Danco Burger is retained at flyhalf following a good display in their 35-28 win against Kenya a fortnight ago. 

“We’ve got a huge gap with a player like Andre van der Berg missing through injury, so we made some tactical changes and a guy like Danco Burger silenced all the critics with the change moving from number 12 to 10,” Botha said. 

“We know what to expect from Boland, they have a wealth of experience, they’ve got a big pack of forwards and then they’ve got those expansive backs, guys with quick feet, now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t type of players. But it’s up to us to negate those characteristics, I mean with proper defence and putting them under pressure and over covering of the backfield is going to be very important,” he added.

“It’s going to be a huge shift, an 80 minute shift from the boys and we are looking forward to seeing a full Hage Geingob Stadium, is always nice having a big crowd supporting the guys, I mean its our local boys, so let’s give them what they deserve and I think a full crowd on Saturday will be awesome,” he said. 

The Welwitschias squad is as follows:

Gershwin Mouton, Nico Maartens, Hillion Beukes, PJ Walters, JC Greyling, Danco Burger (vice captain), AJ Kearns, Prince! Gaoseb (captain), Max Katjijeko, Pieter Diergaardt, Johan Luttig, Mahepisa Tjeriko, Jason Benade, Pieter Jansen, Andre Rademeyer. 

Substitutes:

Wikus Jacobs, Herschelle van Wyk, Herman Coetzee, Francois Jones, Lebeau du Preez, Jacques Theron, Lloyd Jacobs and Warren Ludwig.