Yvonne Kooper was the star of the show as FNB Unam thrashed Trustco United 47-3 to win the Women’s Rugby League title on Saturday.
The irresistible Kooper gave a brilliant performance, scoring five tries as Unam ran United ragged to post a resounding victory.
The two sides had weighed up evenly during the league campaign, drawing their first encounter 13-13, while United won the second 15-7, but in Saturday’s final there was only one side in it.
A fired-up Unam took the initiative from the start as prop forward Kayla Martin crashed over for a try after barely a minute and with winger Fiola Vliete adding the conversion they went 7-0 ahead.
United’s forwards had the upper hand in the early set-pieces, but Unam moved the ball away from the forwards to their speedy backline as much as possible, where Kooper and Vliete wrecked havoc with their pace and opportunism.
The two combined to great effect midway through the first half when they cut through United’s defence to send scrumhalf Veripamue Kamburona over for a try, while Kooper opened her account when she ran half the length of the field after taking a quick tap penalty that caught United’s defence flat-footed.
Kooper added her second just before halftime when she turned on the pace to round off a backline movement in the right hand corner, and with eighthwoman Mandy Hansen adding a great conversion from the touchline, Unam took a commanding 26-0 lead into the halftime break.
The second half had barely started before Kooper pounced, cutting straight through United’s defence to score her third try behind the posts, and with Vliete converting they went 33-0 ahead and the match was as good as won.
Vliete also put in some telling attacks, sending centre Helena Shuumbwa over for a try that was disallowed due to an earlier infringement, but it was Kooper’s day as she ran in two more tries to seal a great victory.
She first rounded off a counter-attack by Vliete to touch down and then scored another opportunistic try, after taking a quick tap penalty and running 70m to dive over behind the posts.
United hardly had a look-in and the only points they had to show was when flyhalf Michelle Slinger put over a late penalty.
Unam’s victory was a great finale to Namibia’s first fully-fledged league which was competitive throughout and underlined that women’s rugby is here to stay.
