Big guns arrive for Sevens

SEVENS rugby big guns Fiji arrived in Windhoek yesterday ahead of the first IRB Trustco Namibia Sevens Tournament which starts in Windhoek tomorrow.

Fiji and Tunisia arrived in the capital yesterday, while Argentina, Zambia, Portugal and Samoa have already made their presence ahead of the 12-team tournament which takes place on Namibian soil for the first time ever.South Africa, Spain, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Botswana are all expected tomorrow. Namibia will field two sides, of which one will be an Invitational side coached by Christo Alexander.According to NRU spokesman Jerry Elago, all the teams that arrived have been allocated training fields.According to Elago, the teams that arrived all expressed satisfaction with the training facilities and are geared up for the tournament which officially kicks off tomorrow from 12h00.The tournament runs concurrently with a school Sevens tournament, also sponsored by Trustco, that will be played at the Vegkop Stadium in central Windhoek. The main tournament takes place at the Hage Geingob Stadium in Olympia. Most of the competing schools will be from South Africa, while Namibia will be represented by eight schools. SCHOOLS IN THE MIXThe South African schools include Heidelberg, Pionier, Waterkloof, Merensky, Ben Voster, Wonderboom and Excelsior.Namibian team manager Ettiene Coetzee has announced the two Namibian squads which will compete at the main tournament and they mostly include players who play for local premiership sides in the NRU league. The official national team consists of Yoshiro Claasen, Brendon Walters, Dwayne Henkert and Desmond Haihambo, who will serve as forwards.The backline has Howard Titus, Attie du Plessis, David Philander, Heini Bock, Gregory Stein and John Drostky.The Invitational squad will be represented by Julian Botes, Shaun Kambazembi, Greyling Koopman and Bradley Langenhoven.Their speedsters at the back will consist of Rodney Bezuidenhout, TC Losper, Llewellyn Feris, Hilton Neethling, Anthony Brandt and Jacky Bock.The various finals in the Bowl, Plate and Cup sections will all be played on Saturday, with the presentation to crown the new champions in Namibia at 19h00.There is also a competition where a lucky winner will get a chance to pocket N$1 million through an SMS competition that is currently running in the local media.Namibia has never staged a Sevens tournament for international teams before and it is the biggest single investment ever by a local company.Trustco has invested N$3 million in the event, which is expected to be held for the next five years. For that purpose, the company has in total set aside N$18 million already. corry@namibian.com