Namibian rugby teams selected

THE Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) has announced the two national teams that will participate in the Safricam Sevens tournament in Kenya and the IRB Nations Cup in Romania.

The Sevens tournament will take place this weekend in Nairobi, Kenya, while the IRB Nations Cup will take place in Romania from next Friday. In the Nations Cup Namibia will face Romania on June 11, Scotland A on June 15 and Georgia on June 20. The team with the most points at the conclusion of the competition will win the tournament. The other countries taking part are Argentina Jaguars and Italy A.In the Sevens tournament in Kenya, Namibia will play against the South African Emerging Boks on Saturday at 08h40, Bristol from the United Kingdom at 11h20 and then Tanzania at 13h40.The quarterfinals, semi finals, and the finals will be played on Sunday. All the matches of this tournament will be shown live on SuperSport.The coach of the Namibian Sevens team, Ronaldo Pedro, is confident that his team will do well in Kenya. ‘We have been preparing for the tournament for four weeks now and we are ready, the guys will play great. We are aiming to reach the Cup final and I’m sure we will achieve this,’ he said.The team has three new players in Virgil Ngongo, Mahco Prinsloo and Justin Nel. The team that will play in the IRB Nations Cup will include European-based players like flanker Jacques Burger, who starred for Saracens in last weekend’s Guinness Premiership final which they lost against Leicester Tigers. Flanker Jacques Nieuwenhuis, who plays club rugby in France, and eighthman Tinus du Plessis, who plays in England, are also included in the team. Also included in the team is lock Nico Esterhuizen who plays for Boland in South Africa.Two players that were originally selected will not be able to travel with the team. Andre Schlechter was not released by his team, the Free State Cheetahs, and will not be joining the Namibian squad. The other player, Henk Franken, will also not join the team because he does not have identification documents and a passport. Ronald van Zyl has been called up to replace him. After the great showing of Mariental early in the season their centre Johan Adriaanse was selected as one of the two new players on the team. The other player is hooker Bertus O’Callaghan who plays his rugby in Potchefstroom, South Africa. Former captain Kees Lensing asked not be selected because his wife is expecting a baby in mid-June. Another notable absentee is Hugo Horn who recently stopped playing professional rugby and could not join the team due to work commitments.National rugby team coach Johan Diergaardt said: ‘We are looking forward to a great tournament, I believe we will be very competitive. We are well prepared for the Nations Cup.’ The team will depart on Friday to Pretoria, South Africa, where they will play a warm-up game against the Blue Bulls Under-21 side on Saturday before flying to Romania on Sunday.The National Sevens team for Kenya: Johan Wohler, Brendon Walters, Morné Blom, Deon Mouton, Melrick Africa, Luwayne Kotze, Huschit Visagie, Ysiro Klaasen, Howard Titus, Attie do Plessis, Anthony Brandt, Virgil Ngongo, Russell van Wyk, Elmo van der Bijl, Gregory Stein, Marco Prinsloo, Chase Diergaardt, Mbimbo Mbai, John Drotsky and Justin Nel. Shortlist: Dwayne Henckert, Lu-Andre Duvenhage and Lewellyn Feris.- namibiasport.com.na

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