Bothma new Namibian rugby captain

RENALDO Bothma will lead Namibia into battle when they leave for Romania on Saturday to compete in World Rugby’s Nations Cup.

The Blue Bulls loose forward takes over the captaincy from Jacques Burger who retired from international rugby at the end of the 2015 World Cup.

Bothma was introduced as the Namibian captain at the Tjops and Toks Rugby Road Show function at the SKW Hall on Wednesday night and said it was a great honour to lead his country.

“I’m very proud to be the Namibian captain. There is a big responsibility on me now but I’m very excited and looking forward to the challenge,” he said.

“We’ve had three days of good training and we leave for Romania on Saturday so I’m very excited and looking forward to the Nations Cup. The aim for us will be to give some of the younger players a chance and to build depth in the squad,” he added.

Bothma will lead a 26man team that includes 19 players who represented Namibia at last year’s World Cup.

Most of Namibia’s professional players who play in South Africa or Europe were available for selection, although a few were unavailable due to the NRU’s player management programme or injury. They include hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld, eighthman PJ van Lill, wings Conrad Marais and David Philander, full back Chrysander Botha and hooker Louis van der Westhuizen.

Localbased loose forwards Roderique Victor and Thomasau Forbes were also unavailable due to injury.

It is, however, still a strong squad which includes numerous stalwarts from last year’s World Cup like Johann Tromp, Johan Deysel, Theuns Kotze, Eugene Jantjies, Tjiue Uanivi and Rohan Kitshoff.

The squad lacks depth in certain positions like prop, lock and fly half, where Theuns Kotze is the only acknowledged fly half, while former scrum half Eugene Jantjies has now been selected at fly half.

Namibia’s World Cup coach Phil Davies, who recently arrived from Wales, said he was happy with the squad’s preparations.

“I am pleased with our preparations so far. I’ve been here for a week and we have had seven training sessions so far. The boys have worked hard and we have picked off where we left off and we are trying to build on our style at the World Cup,” he said.

“The selection is about creating depth in the squad. There are certain places where we are quite thin and don’t have much depth like in the front row, in the second row and at fly half so younger players like Collen Smith and Gerhard Lotter need international exposure,” he added.

Davies said he was disappointed with the Welwitschias’ 1010 defeat to the Griffons last Saturday, but said it was a necessary part of gaining experience in the Currie Cup competition.

“I was disappointed with the Currie Cup result against the Griffons and it shows that we still have a lot of work to do, but at the same time it’s a massive opportunity to play in a competition like the Currie Cup.

“We must all work together to push the game forward in Namibia. There are a lot of opportunities now you have the Nations Cup, the Currie Cup, the African Cup, and then the big prize of competing at the 2019 World Cup, so we have to grasp these opportunities and learn whats required at this level. A lot of the guys who will be playing at the Nations Cup have not experienced this level before so they will be the better off for it,” he said.

Namibia will face Romania, Spain and an Emerging Italy side at the Nations Cup and Davies said the competition would be tough.

“Romania is ranked 16th in the world now so they will be a big challenge as will Emerging Italy and Spain has also improved. It’s going to be very competitive, but we want to win each game that we play and we hope to make the nation proud,” he said.

Meanwhile, Wednesday night’s Toks and Tjops Roadshow drew a full house of Namibian rugby fans including invited guests like NRU president Bradley Basson, former Springbok coach Pieter de Villiers and former Namibian rugby stars like Andre Stoop and Doug Jeffery.

The special guests were former Springboks Rob Louw and Ray Mordt who both clearly enjoyed Namibia and its people.

“This is just a special country it’s booming and it’s great to see the positivity here,” Louw said.

“It’s lovely to be here, the mood is great and you guys are on the way up,” Mordt added.

The Namibian squad for the Nations Cup:

Prop:

Casper Viviers, AJ de Klerk, Quintin Esterhuizen Johannes Coetzee and Collen Smith.

Hooker:

Lock:

Tjiuee Uanivi, Janco Venter and Ruan Ludick.

Loose forwards:

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