Know Your Players

IT is truly amusing to know that Namibia is making history by hosting a huge Sevens Rugby tournament starting today in Windhoek.

This event came as a real surprise to me since there was no talk about it from the onset. No official at the Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) offices mentioned it before and I had not even heard anyone on the streets talking about it.The amount of money that Trustco is putting aside for the first edition is commendable and we hope that their investment in the next five years, will be worth for the game, the fans and the company. The tournament organisers are truly doing a great job or have so far done so by making sure that this event takes place and runs as smooth as possible.It is a huge task to organise and provide for top international rugby playing nations such as Fiji, South Africa, Argentina, Portugal and Spain, let alone our fellow African brothers in Uganda, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tunisia.There is a whole amount of work that goes into such events and for the organisers and especially the NRU for landing the deal with the International Rugby Board (IRB) and for finding a sponsor, it is a job well done. In fact, this is possibly the second biggest event this year on the domestic rugby calendar after Namibia attracted a Springbok Invitational side led by John Smith earlier this year.I knew when the Boks came here with the likes of Schalk Burger, Tendai Mutawarira, Odwa Ndungane, Ricky Januarie, Jean de Villiers and their coach Peter de Villiers, good things will be in the offing for rugby lovers this year.Namibia somewhat has a strong rugby support base in general and the stadium is packed to the brim when South African Provincial sides come to town.There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and as a lover of rugby myself, I don’t mind supporting other teams outside the Namibian borders too.But on the other side of the coin, what about the local games in the MTC Rugby Union leagues and local rugby in general?There are always a handful of supporters at these games, but I still believe that there should be a greater interest overall.The matches of the national team must in actual fact attract the biggest crowds, but they are sometimes overshadowed by the visiting South African provincial sides.I know very well that the Namibian rugby supporters are so in love with teams such as the Bulls, Stormers, Cheetahs and Sharks and even know the players of these respective teams by heart. But do we know our players by heart? I doubt that not many people know the current regular front row players of the Welwitschias, but everyone knows that Schalk Burger and the young Heinrich Brossouw are contenders for the number 6 jersey. We even know that if Pierre Spies is not on at number eight for the Boks, Ryan Kankowski will play.Or even for the Bulls, if Fourie du Preez comes off in the second half, we all know automatically that Heini Adams will come on for him, or we know that if Victor Matfield for the Boks shouts the numbers: ‘vier, drie, vyf, ses’ (4,3,5,6), he is calling for a short line-out. But do we know who our main kicker is in the Namibian 15-man side or do we know who runs the fastest time in a 100-metre sprint among our backs? Do we know who is Namibia’s all time top try scorer or who the current coach of the national team for that matter is? Unfortunately, not most of us know much about our team and facts. As much as we bring in top international teams to set our stadiums alight with their scintillating performances, we must also start to learn about our players and our game locally.The NRU has the responsibility to promote and market the game as vigorous as they can and a truly comprehensive website for the national teams will help this cause.Clubs should also have websites where fans can access information, but it will be nice to have more international matches to make people aware of the local players.The NRU is so far doing well in promoting the game especially at the top level, but should also not fail to do the same at the developmental level. For the fans, make an effort to know your players, but most importantly, be proud of them. Good luck Namibia for the Sevens tourney! corry@namibian.com.na