Namibia suffered a setback in their quest to win the Africa u20 Rugby tournament, the Barthes Cup, after losing their opening match 34-28 to Kenya in Harare on Saturday.
Kenya got off to a strong start to take a 23-6 lead at half time, but Namibia made a great comeback to trail 29-28 with 5m to go but they could not capitalise and Kenya sealed their victory with a late try.
Namibia were their own worst enemies as they missed several try scoring opportunities through handling errors while their kicking at goal was also erratic.
Namibia’s try scorers were co-captain Armand Combrinck who scored two, left wing Suramie Qhena-Kambombo and lock Arenzo Izaacs, while flyhalf Petrus Tromp added two penalties and fullback Ashton van Wyk one conversion.
In the other first round match on Saturday, Zimbabwe got off to a strong start with a 46-21 victory against Tunisia.
Namibia’s next match is against Zimbabwe tomorrow.
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