Welwitschias open campaign against the Griffons

THE Welwitschias open their Currie Cup First Division campaign with a tough away match against the Down Touch Griffons in Welkom on Saturday afternoon.

Last year, when the inaugural Currie Cup First Division was held, the Welwitschias finished bottom of the log with only one bonus point after losing all 14 their matches.

They suffered some massive defeats, including against the Griffons, who beat them 101-0 in Windhoek, as they ran in 15 tries in the process.

The Welwitschias, however, should do better this time around as they showed a lot of improvement in the inaugural Supersport Rugby Challenge which was held earlier this year.

The Welwitschias once again finished bottom of the log, but this time they recorded their first victory in the competition – a hard fought 45-43 victory against the Hino Valke – and according to their coach Lyn Jones, they should at least give a much better account of themselves against the Griffons.

“We lost by 100 points against the Griffons last year so Im pretty sure we won’t have a repeat of that again. The Griffons will still be tough opponents on their home turf, but we are very excited to get back into the swing of things and are looking forward to the match,” he said.

Jones, who was appointed as the Welwitschias coach six months ago, said the standard of Namibian rugby was improving.

“Slowly but surely the standard is improving. My job is to create selection problems for national coach Phil Davies when he selects the national team,” he said.

“We also have more players who have returned to Namibia and its great to have someone of Johann Tromp’s calibre back in the fold,” he added.

The hard-running Tromp had previously played for the Southern Kings in the Super Rugby competition but he has since returned to Namibia and has been selected at fullback for Saturday’s match.

Jones said the Griffons would still start as the favourites but did not discount an upset.

“Anything is possible now. In the Supersport Challenge we played strong teams like the Bulls, the Lions and Western Province, so that was all about damage limitation, but now we are playing teams that are more or less at our level. We must just try to be consistent and improve our fitness,” he said.

Jones said his team had a fine balance of youth and experience, with the experienced campaigners including Tromp, David Philander, Darryl de la Harpe, Eugene Jantjies and Theuns Kotze, while some of the upcoming youngsters include Jandre du Toit, Lesley Klim, Max Katjijeko and Adriaan Booysen.

Numerous players could also not be considered due to injury, including JC Greyling, Mahepisa Tjeriko, Dirk von Weidts, Des Sethie, Neil van Vuuren, Leneve Damens, Nelius Theron and Obert Nortje.

The Namibian squad is as follows:

Johan Tromp, David Philander, Jandre du Toit, Darryl de la Harpe, Lesley Klim, Theuns Kotze, Eugene Jantjies (captain), Christo McNish, Shaun du Preez, AJ de Klerk, Ruan Ludick, Max Katjijeko, Adriaan Booysen, Thamasau Forbes, Joe Hermann.

Substitutes:

Gino Wilson, TC Kisting, Hauta Veii, Bigman Kaura, Andries Rossouw, Denzel van Wyk, Rodrigues Victor, Rohan Kitshoff.

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