NAMIBIA beat a Boland Invitation team 43-12 in a friendly rugby match in Windhoek on Saturday.
The match served as preparation for the Rugby World Cup and although the victory was comfortable enough, the level of opposition was not very strong, while Namibia’s performance left a lot to be desired.They made far too many basic mistakes like knocking on the ball or poor tackling, while the backline showed little penetration, especially in the first half when they held a 21-12 lead.The one aspect of Namibia’s game that was satisfactory though was that of the forwards and especially the scrums, where they pushed Boland back metres at a time. In the lineouts, Namibia also held the upper hand with Nico Esterhuizen, Morne Blom and Jacques Nieuwenhuis winning a lot of possession.In the second half their dominance told as they ran in four unanswered tries.Flyhalf Theuns Kotze opened the scoring after only 3m when he chipped the ball over the defence and collected the ball himself to dot down and convert the try as well.Five minutes later left wing Conrad Marais went over in the corner after a fine run and with Kotze adding the conversion, Namibia were 14-0 ahead.Namibia camped on Boland’s tryline but could not break through until the 29th minute when fullback Chrysander Botha launched an attack, kicking ahead and collecting the ball on the bounce to dot down behind the posts with Kotze once again converting.Namibia’s concentration however slipped as Boland came back with two tries through flanker Quinton de Bruin and hooker Aron Siswana, with flyhalf Nevin Edas converting one.Namibian coach Johan Diergaardt rang the changes in the second half, bringing on numerous replacements during the course of the half.Namibia camped on Boland’s tryline with Heini Bock being held up a metre from the line, but replacement centre Danie van Wyk finally broke through after 56m to score behind the posts. Replacement flyhalf TC Losper added the conversion.Six minutes later flanker Tinus du Plessis barged over from a forward maul, while Van Wyk went over for his second try after a great break by another substitute David Philander. TC Losper missed both conversions.In the final stages replacement hooker Shaun Esterhuizen went over for a try with Chrysander Botha’s conversion attempt hitting the post and bouncing away.- namiabiasport.com.na
