WITH a cloud of uncertainty still hanging over the future of Namibia’s national rugby team and their participation at this year’s Rugby World Cup, club rugby will however get into gear soon.
The acting CEO of the NRU William Steenkamp on Tuesday declined to comment on the progress of talks between the NRU and World Rugby, although he did release the fixtures for this year’s club rugby league which gets underway at the end of March.
The first rugby of the year, however, will already start next weekend when United host their annual 10-a-side tournament on 8 and 9 March.
After that the club league gets underway on 30 March with teams participating in three leagues.
The Premier League will once again include the defending champions Wanderers, United, Unam and Western Suburbs from Windhoek; Rehoboth Rugby Club and Reho Falcon from Rehoboth; and Kudus from Walvis Bay.
The second teams of all these teams will also compete in the Reserve League.
Then there will be three sub regional first leagues in central and southern Namibia, as well as at the coast.
In central Namibia the competing teams are the Vipers, Jaguars, NUST, Eastern Bulls from Gobabis and Grootfontein.
The Southern First League will consist of Keetmanshoop, the Southern Bulls from Mariental, Rosh Pinah Eagles, Ocean Swallows and Oranjemund.
The Western First League will consist of the 2018 champions Vikings, Walvis Bay, Dolphins and Erongo Rugby Academy.
Wanderers, United, Unam and Rehoboth have each also entered a third team which will compete in a separate pool in the Central First League.
Meanwhile, Wanderers and Western Suburbs have both already undertaken tours to South Africa in preparation for the new season.
Wanderers travelled to Vredendal last weekend to take on a Country Districts Barbarians team, where their first and second teams both suffered narrow defeats.
Wanderers’ first team lost 27-24 after trailing 27-7 at halftime, while their second team lost 24-19.
Wanderers will once again be coached by Vince Dreyer, while Henry Kemp has joined as their forward coach. They have also acquired a lot of new players like the speedsters from United, Nandivatu Karuuombe, Tuna Amutenya and Riaan van Zyl; and former national u20 players like Elmaro Beukes, Jacques Theron, Donaville Lebereki, Riaan de Klerk, Ignus Tripodi and Petri Burger, who has returned to Namibia after playing club rugby in Australia.
Western Suburbs travelled to Kakamas in the Northern Cape to compete in their annual sevens tournament where they lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual champions, an invitation team from Western Province.
Suburbs’ chairman Keith Allies said the tour was an eye-opener.
“The quality of sevens rugby as well as the organisation was excellent and it will certainly help us in our efforts this year. We are celebrating our 40th year of existence and will really try to win the Premier League title to coincide with that,” he said.
According to Allies they have signed a lot of new players from several clubs while they have also strengthened their coaching department with the arrival of former Kudus and national fullback Chrysander Botha and former national fly half Jacky Bock, who will join Shaun Kaizemi and Llewellyn Winckler on the coaching staff.
Unam have retained the services of head coach Johan Diergaardt and will be eager to regain the title that they conceded to Wanderers last year.
Several of their experienced players have retired including captain Bradley Klazen, Cameron Klassen, Renaud van Neel and Hauta Veii, but they have signed up several exciting new youngsters and will once again have a lot of depth.
Some of the newcomers include Prince Gaoseb, Peter Diergaardt, Oderich Mouton and Chad Plato who have all played for Namibia u20 and were all at the Blue Bulls Institute last year, while others include two more former u20 national players in Delvin Cloete and Christopher Arries, and Cameron Langenhoven who played for the Welwitschias last year.
United will be coached by Robbie Dickson and Jurie Booysen, who take over from Jood Opperman, and Dickson was not too perturbed about the loss of their three backline speedsters to Wanderers.
“They are all fast and we might lose a bit of pace, but we have a strong squad and several of our former stalwarts like Morne Blom, Ian van Wyk and Martin Cronje will once again be available this year,” he said.
Rehoboth also have a new coach in former national wing back David Philander while Reho Falcon will be coached by Ronaldo Pedro.
In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.
The Namibian uses AI tools to assist with improved quality, accuracy and efficiency, while maintaining editorial oversight and journalistic integrity.
Stay informed with The Namibian – your source for credible journalism. Get in-depth reporting and opinions for
only N$85 a month. Invest in journalism, invest in democracy –
Subscribe Now!
