Historic win over Canada
An audicious try by Helarius Kisting in injury time secured Namibia a historic 43-37 win over Canada in test rugby when the two teams clashed in Amsterdam on Saturday.
Namibia is expected to surpass Canada from 23rd on the World Rugby rankings into 21st position when the log is updated later today.
Achieving this result without a number of first-choice forwards such as Aranos Coetzee, Torsten van Jaarsveld, Tjiuee Uanivi and Janco Venter and without injured outside backs such as Divan Rossouw, Gerswin Mouton, Danco Burger and Chad Plato, among others, will be a great morale boost for Namibia building up to the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
Hooker Louis van der Westhuizen scored twice against Canada off line-out mauls, while captain and centre Johan Deysel, lock Adriaan Ludick, full back André van der Berg and right wing Warren Ludwig also scored tries before the dramatic match-winning finish by Kisting.
Fly half Cliven Loubser and Damian Stevens (replacement scrum half) both added two conversions.
The Namibians found themselves behind by 17-7 and 24-12 in the first half before tries by Van der Westhuizen and Deysel put the teams level at 24-24 at half-time.
With playing time expired, Canada leading 37-36 and Namibia allowed one final kick-off, the Canadians knocked on and then conceded a scrum penalty on the 10-metre line. Strangely, Namibia did not attempt the penalty kick to win the match, but rather chose to attack from a line-out in the right-hand corner.
PJ van Lill won the line-out and Namibia advanced a few metres with their maul before attacking with four more phases near the Canadian goal-line. Kisting - at first receiver - then somehow managed to corkscrew his way past three defenders right in front of him to dive over for the match-winning try.
Namibia is expected to surpass Canada from 23rd on the World Rugby rankings into 21st position when the log is updated later today.
Achieving this result without a number of first-choice forwards such as Aranos Coetzee, Torsten van Jaarsveld, Tjiuee Uanivi and Janco Venter and without injured outside backs such as Divan Rossouw, Gerswin Mouton, Danco Burger and Chad Plato, among others, will be a great morale boost for Namibia building up to the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
Hooker Louis van der Westhuizen scored twice against Canada off line-out mauls, while captain and centre Johan Deysel, lock Adriaan Ludick, full back André van der Berg and right wing Warren Ludwig also scored tries before the dramatic match-winning finish by Kisting.
Fly half Cliven Loubser and Damian Stevens (replacement scrum half) both added two conversions.
The Namibians found themselves behind by 17-7 and 24-12 in the first half before tries by Van der Westhuizen and Deysel put the teams level at 24-24 at half-time.
With playing time expired, Canada leading 37-36 and Namibia allowed one final kick-off, the Canadians knocked on and then conceded a scrum penalty on the 10-metre line. Strangely, Namibia did not attempt the penalty kick to win the match, but rather chose to attack from a line-out in the right-hand corner.
PJ van Lill won the line-out and Namibia advanced a few metres with their maul before attacking with four more phases near the Canadian goal-line. Kisting - at first receiver - then somehow managed to corkscrew his way past three defenders right in front of him to dive over for the match-winning try.
Comments
Namibian Sun
No comments have been left on this article