THE Windhoek Draught Welwitschias stand a great chance of winning their first match of this season’s Currie Cup First Division when they host the Eastern Province Kings on Saturday afternoon.
Both teams lost their opening matches of this year’s campaign last weekend, although the Welwitschias nearly caused a massive upset against the defending champions, Touch Down Griffons.
Playing in Welkom, the Welwitschias led by seven points with five minutes remaining, but poor defending saw the Griffons score two late tries to win the match 66-59.
Despite the defeat it was a fine performance by the Welwitschias and a massive improvement on their performance last year when they lost 101-0 to the same opponents.
They scored nine tries and collected two bonus points in the process, and for once are not in their familiar position of bottom of the log.
That position is now held by the Kings, who lost 40-27 to the Boland Cavaliers at home last Saturday, but they, too, had their chances to win that match.
According to reports, the Kings were leading 27-20 with 10 minutes to go, but then conceded three late tries as the Cavaliers cantered to victory.
Welwitschias coach Lyn Jones was, however, wary of the threat that EP will pose.
“I have no idea about their team, but they are a massive union with a rich history so we can expect a tough match. I am just focussing on our match and trying to improve our game,” he said.
Regarding their defeat to the Griffons, Jones said they couldn’t close the gap after a poor start.
“We had an awful start – we conceded 20 points in the first 20 minutes and from then on we had to play catch-up rugby. We improved as the game progressed and actually took the lead, but then we shipped two late tries through poor defence,” he said, adding that they had worked hard on improving their defence during training this week.
Following that defeat, Jones rang the changes with six new players named in the starting line-up for tomorrow’s match.
Mahco Prinsloo starts at fullback in place of Johan Tromp who moves to the wing, while Gino Wilson replaces David Philander at right wing.
There are four changes amongst the forwards with Des Sethie and Neil van Vuuren replacing Christo McNish and Shaun du Preez in the front row, while Rohan Kitshoff comes in for Adriaan Booysen on the flank and Christo van der Merwe replaces Joe Herman at eighthman.
The 22-year-old Van der Merwe, who has already played five matches for the Namibian senior side, recently returned to Namibia after playing for Western Province for the past few seasons and is an important acquisition according to Jones.
“He’s a professional player who has been playing at a high level in South Africa. He is fit and fast and will definitely strengthen our squad,” he said.
Jones was also full of praise for Mahco Prinsloo who comes in at fullback.
“Mahco came on as a sub last weekend and played very well. He is very committed and trains hard, he has an excellent kicking game and puts the team first,” he said.
The match is due to start at 16h00 at the Hage Geingob Stadium.
The Welwitschias squad is as follows:
Mahco Prinsloo, Gino Wilson, Darryl de la Harpe, Lesley Klim , Johan Tromp, Theuns Kotze, Eugene Jantjies (captain), Des Sethie, Neil van Vuuren, AJ de Klerk, Max Katjijeko, Ruan Ludick, Thomasua Forbes, Rohan Kitshoff, Christo van der Merwe.
The substitutes are Christo McNish, Shaun du Preez, Herman Grobler, Denzil van Wyk, Adriaan Booysen, TC Kisting and Heinrich Smit.
