Namibia hunts second win

Namibia and Hong Kong will cross swords tomorrow in Bucharest, Romania at the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy.The 11th edition of the competition kicked off on Tuesday, with eight teams battling it out for the title.In their first match, Namibia beat hosts Romania 55-26 with excellent display of attacking rugby. Making their first appearance at this level since 2010, the hosts were caught cold, as the visitors ran in two tries courtesy of Chad Plato and Denzo Bruwer, with the latter converting both. Cosmin Iliuta missed a penalty for Romania before two more successful kicks from Bruwer gave Namibia a 20-point lead with less than 25 minutes on the clock. Andrei Pasalan scored Romania's first try of the tournament shortly afterwards, but another brace of penalties from the boot of Bruwer put Namibia firmly in control.The hosts crossed again just before the break, through Dragos Ser, but Romania were comfortably second best and conceded within a minute of the restart, as Rudi Pretorius scored in the right corner. Bruwer showed he was human, as his conversion struck the post - his first miss in seven attempts - before he also failed with a long-range penalty. The second miss came after Ser had been shown a yellow card.The Namibian flyhalf, however, restored order with a further three points, as Romania rallied when Adriaan Ludick joined Ser in the sin bin. Prop Iulian Hartig scored just before the hour-mark and when replacement scrumhalf Andrei Homiuc sniped over nine minutes later, the hosts were within eight points of the lead. But Namibia were not in the mood for hospitality and ran in tries by Donabille Lebereki, Elmarco Beukes and Gerbus van Wyk in the final 10 minutes to power past 50 points.Namibia leads Pool A with five points, followed by Samoa, also on five, and Romania on one point. Hong Kong is yet to break their duck.In Pool B, Fiji leads with five points, followed by 2017 runner-ups Portugal with four, while Canada and Uruguay are on one point each.Hong Kong finished last in last year's competition, while Namibia finished fourth. Both countries want to do better this time around.The winner of the u-20 trophy will be promoted to the World Rugby U-20 Championship in 2019, replacing Japan who was relegated after finishing bottom of the 2018 edition in France last weekend. Uruguay will kickoff proceedings against Canada tomorrow, before Namibia tackles Hong Kong. Samoa will meet hosts Romania, with Portugal and Fiji closing off the day's action. -Additional info by WORLDRUGBYLIMBA MUPETAMI

Namibia hunts second win

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Namibian Sun 2025-11-04

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Namibia hunts second win

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Namibian Sun 2025-11-04

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