Welwitschias Move Up in Ranking

Otniel Hembapu

23 June 2011

Windhoek — Despite their early exit from the just concluded International Rugby Board (IRB) Nations Cup in Romania, the Namibian Rugby Fifteen attained another accolade when the Welwitschias climbed up a notch on the IRB World rankings.

According to the latest ranking on the official IRB website, Namibia has moved from 21st to 20th on the IRB world rankings. The World Cup bound Welwitschias are stationed second behind continental powerhouse and IRB world champions, South Africa,with Morocco adrift in 3rd place.

Namibia surrendered its IRB Nations Cup title and has now dropped down to 4th place in the IRB third tier competition. Meanwhile, 2011 IRB World Cup hosts New Zealand are sitting pretty in 1st place on the IRB world rankings with Southern Hemisphere foes Australia and South Africa in 2nd and 3rd places respectively.

Welwitschias’ coach Johan Diergaardt, hailed Namibia’s slight improvement on the global rankings, saying it was a great achievement and a moral booster ahead of the team’s participation in the IRB World Cup finals in New Zealand later this year.

” Moving from the 21st to 20th place already shows that there is progress in motion and we are definitely playing good rugby – that’s why we moved up a notch in the world rankings. The national team was ranked 25th when I took over and now being ranked 20th in the latest IRB world rankings is a positive achievement for the team and to me as an individual,” said coach Diergaadt.

“We played good rugby and I’m happy with our performance so far and I’m sure we will improve and probably play to our full potential in the World Cup. A country like Georgia is ranked 14th while Romania is ranked 18th, so losing against such countries by narrow margins is not that bad at all. That shows that there is still room for improvement,” concluded Diergaardt.

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