Defending champions FNB Kudus have all but sealed their place in the knockout stages of the Rugby Premier League after FNB Western Suburbs withdrew from their encounter tomorrow.
Suburbs withdrew from their scheduled match in Walvis Bay due to financial difficulties which gives Kudus a maximum six bonus points to strengthen their fourth place on the log.
In a letter to the Namibia Rugby Union and Kudus on Monday, Suburbs informed them that they cannot honour their scheduled fixture against Kudus due to severe financial constraints.
“This decision stems from severe financial constraints currently facing the club. Having hosted our past weekend’s home game at the Wanderers Sports Ground, we unfortunately did not generate any income from the event,” it said.
“Furthermore, during our recent trip to Grootfontein, we encountered severe travel problems when our transport bus broke down. We had to accommodate our playing team and arrange alternative transport back to Windhoek on Sunday at a significant unbudgeted cost,” it added.
“Consequently, we are left without the necessary funds required to cover transport and operational logistics for the travel to Walvis Bay,” the letter concluded.
Kudus coach Roger Thompson said he was disappointed that the match had been cancelled.
“We are very disappointed with Suburbs not travelling to the coast this weekend – obviously all teams are struggling a bit financially, and this will also be a loss for us in terms of club revenue this weekend. But we are satisfied with the six points that we will be getting, which will cement our position within the semifinals, but we choose to focus on each game as it comes, to finish the league and playing successfully and then we’ll get our sights set on the semifinals on 26 September,” he said.
Thompson praised his team’s character after a slow start to the league.
“It has been a bit of a slow start for us this year but our goal has always been to successfully defend our title. We lost a bit of headway in the first round when we lost three away games to United, Wanderers and Grootfontein, but it revealed character within this team and we had to claw back as title contenders,” he said.
“The fixtures dealt us a better hand in the second round of competition where we have six games at the coast and that contributed to more consistency in selection which will help with the team chemistry. We are building processes within the team and it has helped a lot playing weekend after weekend and having to select a similar group of players who can get the job done,” he added.
Thompson said it took a while to build consistency in their premier league side, while they have also used a lot of their second team players, who are still unbeaten this season and on top of the reserve league.
“We’ve used a lot of young players from our second team – they are unbeaten after 11 games so they are doing pretty well, but we struggled a bit with chemistry and synergy within our premier league side. But we’ve got some good momentum now and I am sure we will be right amongst the finalists when the time arrives,” he said.
Suburbs’ withdrawal gives Kudus maximum bonus points which sees them moving up to second place on the log on 56 points, with Montego United now third on 54 and FNB Grootfontein fourth on 51 points. Fifth-placed FNB Unam (37 points) are losing ground in the race for the semifinals as they are now 14 points behind Grootfontein, while they also face a tough away match against United tonight.
This will only be their first match this season after their first round clash on 27 June was postponed due to Namibia’s international match against Zambia, but United will enter as the favourites on their home ground.
They have only lost two matches all season and last weekend posted an impressive 50-17 away victory against Grootfontein.
In other matches this weekend, log leaders Wanderers travel south to take on sixth-placed FNB Rehoboth, while seventh-placed FNB Dolphins host eighth-placed FNB Reho Falcon at the coast.
