THE Welwitschias will on Saturday play provincial side Boland instead of the South African Universities team as reported earlier.
Johan Diergaardt, coach of the Welwitschias, said the change was necessitated by the unavailability of some of the players who also play provincial rugby.’The South African Universities team would have consisted of players from the different franchises and they didn’t release their players so the South African Rugby Union opted to send Boland who will now play us on Saturday instead,’ Diergaardt explained.’They offered us the Boland game and we took it because I think that would be better opposition and secondly they have more structures in their game since they are a team that has played together since the Vodacom Cup,’ he added.’It would give us more competition and better preparation for the World Cup.’Boland are currently playing in the Currie Cup First Division and have won all three of their matches so far.The match against the SA Universities team will still take place in Windhoek on August 20.’Hopefully by that time they would have sorted out the problems they had with the franchises,’ Diergaardt continued.Diergaardt said that the final squad announcement for the team that will represent the country at the World Cup would be made next week on Wednesday.’The squad is coming along very well, but there are two or three players who I would like to see playing and how they cope.’’We just brought in Raoul Larson from the Villagers in Cape Town who will be playing prop,’ he said.The prop position has been a major problem for the Welwitschias and the introduction of Larson could be the solution.Another newcomer to the squad is flanker Ruan Kitsoff who plays for Western Province.’We also will have TC Losper whom I will play at flyhalf – we have worked hard for the past six weeks with him conditioning wise and I think we will need him in the World Cup if he can get in form,’ Diergaardt said.’There are also certain players that I will need to give some playtime in the Boland match and others will get a chance in the next match. All this will give us a good idea about who will be our first choice players at the World Cup.’Diergaardt added that he was very confident about how his team would perform against Boland.’This will be our first match since the IRB Nations Cup and some of the guys haven’t played rugby since, but I am very confident because we have some guys who have worked really hard in the two camps that we have had since. So their conditioning is good, we just need to gel now,’ he concluded.The match is scheduled to start at 15h30 at the Hage Geingob Stadium.The players who will be available for selection for Saturday’s match from the squad of 38 are:Forwards: Johnny Redelinghuys, Raoul Larson, Jané du Toit, Shaun Esterhuizen, Bertus O’Callaghan, Hugo Horn, Wacca Kazombiaze, Heinz Koll, Nico Esterhuyse, Henk Franken, Renaud van Neel, Tinus du Plessis, Rohan Kitshoff, Jacques Nieuwenhuis,Backs: Ryan de la Harpe, Eugene Jantjies, Theuns Kotze, Daryll de la Harpe, Piet van Zyl, Danie van Wyk, David Philander, Llewellyn Winckler, Conrad Marais, Heini Bock, McGrath van Wyk, Chrysander Botha, TC Losper.- namibiasport.com.na
