Young Welwitschias cruise past Hong Kong

Namibia’s under-20 national rugby team yesterday recorded an emphatic 70-8 victory over Hong Kong at the World Rugby U-20 Trophy, which is taking place in Zimbabwe.
The team was in imperious form as they scored a try as early as the sixth minute after Unomasa Kavita went over the whitewash.
This was followed by tries from Gino Wilson (27th minute), Hillian Beukes (35th), Stiaan van der Merwe (37th) and Johan de Klerk (39th).
Flyhalf Cliven Loubser converted all but one of the tries to give Namibia a comfortable 38-0 halftime lead.
The free flow of tries continued in the second half with Kavita registering his brace four minutes after the restart.
Loubser again made sure of the conversion.
Second-half replacement Sam Kuvare then went over for Namibia’s seventh try, which Loubser converted for his 12th point of the match.
The flyhalf joined in the try-fest as he touched down in the 66th minute.
He duly converted to reach 20 points for the day with Namibia cruising 62-0.
Hong Kong finally got on the scoreboard in the 73rd minute when Liam Owens went over for a try, which was converted by Cameron Smith.
Namibia then added salt to the Hong Kong wounds by scoring the tenth try of the match with Johan de Klerk got his second try of the match.
Loubser again converted to take his personal tally to 22 points on the day.
The rout took Namibia to second place in their group, equal on points with Spain, who were due to play the USA late yesterday afternoon.
Meanwhile, local rugby was rocked by news that one of the players representing Namibia at the tournament may have tested positive for a banned substance.
The player is said to have been suspended and immediately removed from the squad following reports that his sample from an out-of-competition anti-doping test done on 5 April came back positive for two banned substances.
The Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) did not reveal the name of the player but vowed to take disciplinary measures once the issue was settled.

HECTOR MAWONGA