Rugby World Cup draw provides ‘great challenge’

THE CEO of the Namibia Rugby Union, Theo Grunewald on Friday said that the 2023 Rugby World Cup draw was exciting and a great challenge for Namibia.

Namibia still have to qualify for the 2023 World Cup, but if they manage to do so, their opponents will be nearly identical to that of 2019, when Namibia competed in Group B against New Zealand, South Africa and Italy, while their match against Canada was cancelled due to Typhoon Hagibis.

According to the 2023 tournament draw which was released on Friday, the first qualifier from Africa (Africa 1) has been drawn in Pool A, alongside New Zealand, the hosts France, Italy and the first qualifying team from the Americas (America 1).

If Namibia, therefore, qualify, they will once again meet New Zealand and Italy, and possibly Canada as well, while only France will be a change to the 2019 lineup.

Grunewald on Friday said it would be a great challenge.

“We must first qualify, but it’s always exciting and a great challenge to play the top teams in the world. At the 2019 World Cup we gave a good account against the All Blacks and showed that we could remain competitive for about 60 minutes, while we were even in the lead at a stage. But, of course, a match is 80 minutes long, while their substitutes also made a big difference,” he said, adding that France would also be very tough opponents.

“France are playing great rugby at the moment. They always have flair and play attractive running rugby, but they are now also playing constructive rugby, so they will be a very big challenge.”

Öur target will be to beat the American side, but after the last World Cup we actually set a target of winning two matches at the 2023 World Cup, so that means we will also have to beat Italy, which won’t be easy. They get top class competition in the Six Nations, and that’s our problem, because we don’t receive regular top class competition,” he said.

So far Namibia only has two confirmed matches this year, against the Ivory Coast and Madagascar in Pool A of the Africa Cup which Namibia will host in July.

The top two teams will progress to the final Africa Cup tournament in 2022 along with the top two teams of three other pools. This will also serve as the final qualifier for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, with the winning team qualifying directly while the runners-up will still have a chance of qualifying via a repechage tournament.

Grunewald, however, said that they hoped to organise a few more matches this year.

“We will try and organise a friendly or two before the Africa Cup matches in July, while we also hope to include a test series during the international test window in November,” he said.

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