Namibian sport fans are in for a treat this weekend when African powerhouses, Namibia and South Africa (SA) square off in a five-match indoor hockey women’s test series in the capital.
There has been little to separate the two sides in recent years, and with Namibia currently ranked eighth in the world and SA ninth, the series could go down to the wire.
In their last encounter at the Nkosi Cup last year, SA beat Namibia 5-3, but Namibia won the Nkosi Cup in 2023 and 2024, beating SA on both occasions, while Namibia came sixth at the 2025 Indoor Hockey World Cup in Croatia and SA eighth.
Both squads are well balanced with experienced stalwarts and exciting newcomers.
For Namibia, goalkeeper Petro Stoffberg is the most experienced with 83 caps, while captain Sunelle Pretorius has 70, Gillian Hermanus 58, Azaylee Philander 47 and Jivanka Kruger 38.
Some of the upcoming youngsters who are all still in their teens include Ottilie Hinda and the Grögli sisters Leila and Tamara; as well as Abigail Rowles and Anri Jacobs, who will make their international debuts.
Jamie Southgate is SA’s most experienced player with 111 caps, while Edith Molikoe has 85 and Tegan Fourie 81.
They are followed by Malikah Hamza (36), Sarah Paget (27), Cailynn den Bakker (24) and Bonolo Moabi (20), while Judie Blows, Jehan Abrahams, Manisha Desai and Anja Tromp will be making their debuts.
Namibia coach Shayne Cormack says the series was initiated to help the teams prepare for the next Indoor Hockey World Cup in 2029.
“This is part of our preparation for the world cup, and myself and SA coach Calvin Price have made a commitment to keep playing each other so that we can keep Africa hockey well developed for the world stage. So we made a commitment that we try and play each other once a year outside of the Nkosi Cup, because that’s a different tournament,” she says.
“It’s a great opportunity to expose our younger players and less experienced players, and get more caps for them, because going forward we will need that experience if we want to qualify for the world cup,” she adds.
Cormack says the series will provide a good test and strengthen competition for places in the side.
“Some of the youngsters also played at the Nkosi Cup last year and they really made us proud, so we are excited to see what they can deliver. Then there are quite a few senior players who were not at the Nkosi Cup and actually haven’t played internationally for close to two years since the world cup, so we’ll see what their form is like,” she says.
Namibia, however, will be without their inspirational captain Kiana Cormack, who is still recovering from brain surgery to have a tumour removed.
“Kiana is recovering well, she will have another brain scan at the end of the month, but she has been tumour free for three months. So now she just has to heal and we hope that she can get back onto the court as soon as possible,” Cormack says.
Cormack says she expects a close series.
“It’s going to be a nice challenge. I don’t know what’s going to happen but Im just excited to try out a few things, to see what he’s going to try, and this will just help us grow as a team,” she says.
“I think it’s going to be a great contest and I think it will be very competitive. I’m not going to worry too much about the results – obviously we want to win games and we want to breed a winning culture, but we are now at a stage where we are trying to give our less experienced players more exposure and hopefully by the next Nkosi Cup, we’ll be at the next level,” she says.
The test series will be held at the Sports Facilitation Centre at the Windhoek Showgrounds, with the first test at 18h00 tomorrow, to be followed by two tests on Saturday and two on Sunday.
