Rossouw raring to go

Namibia’s new backline coach Pieter Rossouw is raring to go and believes that Namibia can cause a few upsets at this year’s Rugby World Cup.

The former Springbok wing, who scored 21 tries in 43 tests, arrived in Namibia over the weekend to help prepare the team for Saturday’s first test against Russia

“I love Namibia and its people. I come and visit here regularly and I’ve been following Namibian rugby, so I know that the NRU is under pressure since it cannot compete on a professional basis. But I think we have an excellent group of players and I think we can surprise some people this year,” he said.

Rossouw said he would work on various aspects but that working as a team would be the most important.

“Some of the aspects we will work on are decision-making – to make the right decision at the right time – I think that’s very important, as well as normal backline skills like handling, passing, running and using your feet. Aerial skills like kicking and catching the ball will also be important especially in the wet conditions of England where I expect we can expect a lot of kicks,” he said.

“The most important however is to work together as a team – that we understand our strengths and weaknesses and that we can function as a unit. You can have 15 stars who play as individuals and 15 average players who play as a team, and the team will always perform better than the individuals,” he said.

Rossouw said Namibia had a huge backlog compared to professional countries like New Zealand or South Africa.

“We have a huge backlog and you cant even try to compare Namibian rugby to that of New Zealand or South Africa. If you look at the amount of players they have and how they train, week in and week out, it’s just at another level. But we have a few professional players in the group so we just have to try and get the maximum out of the group over the next two to three months. We also have players who are working so we also need to accommodate them so that’s the challenge we are facing,” he said.

Rossouw said he expected a strong forward onslaught from Russia on Saturday.

“I don’t know much about Russia but this week we’ve been focusing more on our game plan. We know they are a physical side with good forwards but they have also not played for quite a while now. So we’ll just focus on what we have to do and we see it as part of a process that we are building towards the World Cup,” he said.

Rossouw said he looked forward to working with head coach Phil Davies who will arrive in Windhoek from Wales on Saturday.

“I know Phil and I think we will enjoy working together. He is a respected coach who has coached the Cardiff Blues while he also played for Wales, so he knows his rugby and he has a nice way of working with the players,” he said.

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