Namibia defeated Russia by 39 points to 19 in a friendly International match played in the Namibian capital Windhoek on Saturday.
Namibia: Tries: Van Wyk 2, Jantjies, Greyling, Deysel Converions: Kotzè 3, Jantjies Penalties: Kotzè 2
Russia: Tries: Galinovsky, Gresev, Chegadoav Conversions: Kushnarev 2
Namibia can take heart from this performance as this was the first hit-out by a team that does not get to play together regularly and were also playing for the first time under new Head Coach, Welshman Phil Davies. They appear to have developed a lot more depth than was previously the case and could use Super Rugby stalwarts Renaldo Bothma and Torsten van Jaarsveld and Chrysander Botha who participates in the Aviva Premiership off the bench. Those not playing outside of Namibia were included in South Africa’s development series, the Vodacom Cup in 2015 to help Namibia to develop their squad.
It will be interesting to see if they can build on their performance in the second game of the series, also to be played in Windhoek next Saturday. The Namibians will compete in Pool D of the Rugby World Cup along with favourites New Zealand, Argentina, Georgia and Tonga. They won’t progress out of their pool to the playoffs, but I do see them being more competitive than they have been in previous editions of the Rugby World Cup. The Welwitchias as they are nicknamed have played in four previous Rugby World Cups and have never won a game and I am hoping that this will be their year to record a win.
Teams:
Namibia: 15 Johan Tromp, 14 David Philander, 13 Danie van Wyk, 12 Johan Deysel, 11 Russel van Wyk, 10 Theuns Kotzé, 9 Eugene Jantjies, 8 Thinus du Plessis, 7 Thomasua Forbes, 6 Jacques Burger (captain), 5 Jaco Venter, 4 Tjiuee Uanivi, 3 Casper Viviers, 2 DG Wiese, 1 Jaco Engels.
Replacements: 16 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 17 Raoul Larson, 18 AJ de Klerk, 19 Renaldo Bothma, 20 Rohan Kitshoff, 21 Arthur Bouwer, 22 JC Greyling, 23 Chrysander Botha.
Russia: 15 Anton Ryabov, 14 Igor Galinovsky, 13 Dmitriy Gerasimov, 12 Vladimir Rudenko, 11 Andrey Otrokov, 10 Yury Kushnarev, 9 Alexey Shcherban, 8 Viktor Gresev, 7 Dmitriy Krotov, 6 Andrey Temnov, 5 Pavel Butenko, 4 Andrey Garbuzov, 3 Innokentiy Zykov, 2 Stanislav Selskii, 1 Alexey Volkov.
Replacements: 16 Evgeny Matveev, 17 Vladimir Podrezov, 18 Evgeny Pronenko, 19 Alexey Panasenko, 20 Danila Chegodaev, 21 Rushan Iagudin, 22 Evgeny Kolomiitsev, 23 Alexey Mikhaltsov.
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