{"id":445410,"date":"2011-06-22T05:30:15","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T05:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/22\/namibia-no-hope-for-welwitschias\/"},"modified":"2011-06-22T05:30:15","modified_gmt":"2011-06-22T05:30:15","slug":"namibia-no-hope-for-welwitschias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/22\/namibia-no-hope-for-welwitschias\/","title":{"rendered":"Namibia: No Hope for Welwitschias"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Sheefeni Nikodemus<\/p>\n

21 June 2011<\/p>\n

\n

No chance… Namibia’s Bertus O’Callaghan tackles Georgia’s Vasil Kakovin during their IRB nations Cup rugby match in Bucharest on Sunday.Nampa-Reuters<\/p>\n

THE Namibian rugby team are bound to be the whipping boys at the IRB Rugby World Cup in September, local rugby experts said yesterday.<\/p>\n

Since clinching the IRB Nations Cup in Romania last June, the Welwitschias have been free-falling, performing poorly throughout the 2010\/11 Vodacom Cup campaign coupled by recent uninspiring results that led to the once promising side failing to defend their title. Following Sunday’s 15-10 defeat to fellow World Cup participants Georgia, Namibia could only finish fourth at the six-team tournament.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s Kings were crowned champions, having maintained their 100 per cent record by beating Portugal 39-12 in their final match.<\/p>\n

Having failed to match fellow third-tier countries and a provincial team, local pundits now believe Namibia have set the tone for possible humiliation against the top rugby nations at the World Cup in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

The Welwitschias will face Fiji, Samoa, Wales and world champions South Africa in Pool D.<\/p>\n

“I think we’re gonna get hammered,” said Reho Falcon’s Alex van der Bergh. “Namibia’s rugby is not up to standard. We don’t stand a chance at the World Cup.”<\/p>\n

Kudu’s coach Zane Jansen agreed with van der Bergh but added that there team had much bigger problems.<\/p>\n

“Anyone can clearly see that the national league is not up to standard,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I feel sorry for Johan (Diergaardt) because he has such a small group to chose from. Our rugby structure is not right. We cannot expect these boys to perform against professional guys. It will be a tough World Cup.”<\/p>\n

Unam Rugby Club’s chairperson Werner Jeffery also voiced his opinion on the matter.<\/p>\n

He said: “They would do much better if they have a better game plan. We don’t have any hope of winning a game at the world cup.”<\/p>\n

The trio also highlighted the team’s tactics and selection as deficiencies, Sunday’s match being a case in point. They believe Namibia’s strengths were in the line-outs and in the scrum, something that the coaching staff failed to note.<\/p>\n

“On Sunday you could see they scored when they played a quick game against the big forwards from the opposition,” Jeffery added. “And why did (flyhalf) Theuns Kotze not play? He was our best player against Portugal.”<\/p>\n

“I wouldn’t have picked (scrumhalf Eugene) Jantjies,” said Jansen. “The combinations were not right. It’s all about picking the right guys at the right time.”<\/p>\n

Van der Bergh also felt Diergaardt got his selection wrong. He said fullback Chrysander Botha was horribly exposed at the unfamiliar flyhalf position, that should have been occupied by Kotze and not Jantjies.<\/p>\n

However, there is a remedy for Namibian rugby: a complete overhaul of its current structure.<\/p>\n

“We need to professionalise,” said Jansen. “That’s the only way we can compete.”<\/p>\n

According to Jeffery, the regional structures urgently need to be activated in order to harvest the best available talent.<\/p>\n

“We need to get more guys involved,” he said. ” We need to make rugby open to everyone.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\nNamibia: No Hope for Welwitschias<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheefeni Nikodemus 21 June 2011 No chance… Namibia’s Bertus O’Callaghan tackles Georgia’s Vasil Kakovin during their IRB nations Cup rugby match in Bucharest on Sunday.Nampa-Reuters THE Namibian rugby team are bound to be the whipping boys at the IRB Rugby World Cup in September, local rugby experts said yesterday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":424897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-445410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"yoast_head":"\nNamibia: No Hope for Welwitschias - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/22\/namibia-no-hope-for-welwitschias\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Namibia: No Hope for Welwitschias - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Sheefeni Nikodemus 21 June 2011 No chance... 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