THREE players were ejected during Wanderers’ 60-29 thrashing of Northam Rhinos on Saturday, following a racial on-field altercation.
The incident happened in the 73rd minute of the Gold Cup encounter at Wanderers sports grounds in Windhoek when flanker Rohan Kitshoff and hooker Theo Coetzee grappled with Rhinos tight head prop Patrick Mulamba.
The visiting team’s forward reacted forcefully to a “racist” remark directed at him by Coetzee during a coming together, which resulted in the brawl that took about five minutes for referee Jackie Husselmann and his assistants to diffuse.
Kitshoff and Coetzee are white Namibians, while Mulamba, who had to be restrained by several of his teammates, is a black South African.
“To be honest with you, it’s a gentleman’s game with a lot of hooligans playing it. It’s sad to see what’s happening. I’m not gonna comment further about who’s right or wrong, but it doesn’t belong on a rugby field,” Rhinos coach Flip de Kock told reporters.
The Namibian club’s involvement in the competition has been shrouded in controversy from the onset.
Not only have Wanderers taken the place of national champions Unam in the club rugby championship based on a technicality, but they have had to recruit ‘players of colour’ in order to meet quota requirements by South African rugby.
Wanderers coach JP Nel put the unsavoury incident down to a heat-of-the-moment reaction, given the competitive nature of the sport.
“It’s always gonna happen. It’s a contact sport. You’ll always have a bit of off the ball. Afterwards, we all have a cold beer and all is forgiven,” Nel said.
On Saturday, a full-strength Wanderers had the measure of the South African side within the first 40 minutes as they went into halftime 29-3 ahead, thanks to tries from Steph Botha, Alberto Engelbrecht, Schalk Bergh and Lean Stoop, combined with three successful conversions from Mahco Prinsloo.
The Rhinos emerged with renewed vigour for the second half as they scored their first try on 43 minutes through centre Danie Loots, paired with a conversion by Patrick Hattingh.
After Wanderers hit back shortly after Francois Wiese crossed the whitewash, the two teams registered a pair of tries each before home side Wanderers ran in two more to complete an emphatic win.
“I think the guys did well today. There were a few individual brilliant moments that stood out when you think of Stoop, who scored three tries. I’m happy, but there are a lot of areas to work on,” Nel said.
Wanderers are currently third on the log with seven points, while Rustenburg Impala are top of the group with 10 points. Pirates are second, level on 10 points with Impala.
Evergreens are fourth on five points and Northam Platinum Rhinos are bottom of the log with a single point.
“We’re going to Rustenburg next weekend. They’ve been in the final for almost as long as the competition has been going on. They will notice us with this score. So, we need to be firing on all cylinders, otherwise it’s gonna be a tough outing for us,” he explained.
“Our aim is to finish first or second. That will probably be determined next weekend. I saw Evergreens beat Pirates at home, so that puts us second. I told the guys our destiny is in our own hands. We just need to get the points on the board.”
His counterpart De Kock said while they were not in the competition to win it, his youthful Rhinos were picking up valuable experience.
“Well done to Wanderers. I think they are a good club and play well-structured rugby. Best of luck to them for the rest of the tournament,” De Kock said.
“We’re a B-League side playing in this tournament. We have a lot of young guys, so every game for us is effectively a learning curve,” he noted.
“Our biggest obstacle is that we don’t have depth, but I’m proud of my guys. We actually stood up more in the second half, and it showed on the scoreboard at the end of the day.”
