Confidence boosted

Namibia defeated the Southern Kings 21-17 in their final warm-up match, before they head off to Japan for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.The win in Walvis Bay on Saturday was their second over the same South African opponents, after last week's 28-22 victory in Windhoek. Namibia took an early lead in the 13th minute, through a penalty by flyhalf Cliven Loubser.His Kings' counterpart Demetri Catrakilis responded by converting a penalty of his own, to make it 3-3 in the 18th minute.Winger JC Greyling then went over for Namibia's first try of the match, to make it 8-3 in the 29th minute, before Alandre van Rooyen scored a try for the Kings' in the 37th minute, which was converted by Catrakilis, to make it 10-8 in favour of the visitors.However, Loubser made sure Namibia took a lead into the halftime break, when he converted another penalty. The highly physical match saw both teams lose a player in the 53rd minute for foul play.Both Namibia's PJ van Lill and Thembelani Bholi of the Kings were shown red cards.This was after Loubser had slotted another penalty in the 44th minute, to make it 14-10 in favour of Namibia.Substitute Louis van der Westhuizen scored another try for Namibia and Loubser converted to take the score to 21-10.The Kings then launched a fightback and were duly rewarded when Arthur de Wee scored a try in the 70th and Bader Pretorius converted to make it 21-17 in Namibia's favour.Speaking after the match, Namibia's head coach Phil Davies said his team played well during certain periods of the game. He expressed general satisfaction with his side's preparations for the World Cup.“It was a tough match; I am pleased to win. There was a little bit of indiscipline in the second half, as we gave away too many penalties,” he said.Namibia leave for Japan on 12 September, where they will face Italy in their opening match on 22 September. New Zealand, South Africa and Canada also lie in wait in their group.NAMPA

Confidence boosted

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-06-19

Please login to leave a comment

Confidence boosted

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-06-19

Please login to leave a comment

Login