Namibian rugby faces its own Waterloo when the national team takes on Belgium in a do-or-die clash in their first Rugby World Cup qualifier in Dubai tomorrow.
Like Napoleon Bonaparte’s final defeat in the Belgian town of Waterloo in 1815, the Namibian Welwitschias now meet the modern day Belgian national rugby team, the ‘Black Devils’, in a decisive match for a place in Australia in 2027.
Namibia has a proud history at the Rugby World Cup, having participated seven times consecutively since 1999 on the world’s biggest stage, but the odds are now stacked against them as they try to extend that record.
A 30-28 defeat to Zimbabwe in the Africa Cup final on 19 July, ended direct qualification for the first time, but now they have a second, albeit more difficult chance, to qualify via the final repechage tournament in Dubai, which also features Samoa and Brazil.
The tournament will be held on a round robin basis, with each team playing each other once, while the team with the most points at the end of the group phase will win the competition, to claim the 24th and final spot at the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
While a defeat to Belgium tomorrow will not neccessarily be the end of the road, it will be very important to start off with a win, bearing in mind that the powerful Samoa and shock debutants Brazil still lie in wait.
Belgium have never qualified for the Rugby World Cup, but they have developed rapidly in recent years and have in fact also overtaken Namibia on the international rankings with a ranking of 22nd compared to Namibia’s 27th.
They missed out on direct qualification after finishing fifth at this year’s Europe Rugby Championship, with the top four teams – Georgia, Spain, Portugal and Romania – all qualifying for Australia.
In their group matches, they beat Germany 39-19, but lost 40-30 to Portugal and 31-14 to Romania to finish third in Pool B. In the play-off match for fifth place they beat the Netherlands 31-10.
Since then, they have played two international friendlies, losing 36-17 to the United States on 5 July, and then beating Canada for the first time ever, posting a 25-18 victory in Edmonton a week later.
They have a well-balanced squad with six players playing in the top two French leagues – the Top 14 and Pro D2 leagues – and another 11 in other French leagues. They also enjoy regular high quality rugby, playing for the Brussels Devils in the European club tournament, the Rugby Europe Super Cup.
Namibia, meanwhile, have only played two matches since their defeat to Zimbabwe on 19 July, beating the UAE 86-29 a week later, and then last weekend, losing 26-17 to the Boland Cavaliers last weekend.
Namibia have also promoted attacking consultant Pieter Rossouw to head coach, taking over from interim coach Jacques Burger, while hooker Louis van der Westhuizen also takes over the captaincy for the first time.
In an interview with World Rugby this week, Van der Westhuizen said they need to go back to the basics and will need to show guts to win the encounter.
“We have to stick to the basics, do it well and just execute the plan that the coaches give us. It’s going to take guts and we will have to show a lot of guts. It’s not going to be easy and we obviously know that – we are not in the situation that we want to be in, but that’s rugby, and now we just have to make the best of it,” he said.
“We’ll give our absolute best. We have been preparing well and this is our last chance, there are no second chances from here, so we’ll just give everything that we have,” he said.
The Namibian team for Saturday’s match was announced yesterday and is as follows:
Otja Auala, Louis van der Westhuizen (captain), Haitembu Shikufa, Adriaan Ludick, Tiaan de Klerk, Wian Conradie, Max Katjijeko, Adriaan Booysen, Helarius Kisting, Andre van der Berg, JC Greyling, Danco Burger, Johan Deysel, Divan Rossouw, JC Nel.
Substitutes:
Torsten van Jaarsveld, Gianluca Salvoldelli, Aranos Coetzee, Johan Retief, Prince !Gaoseb, Johan Luttig, Cliven Loubser.
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