Retired Burger blesses sevens team KAINO NGHITONGO Former Welwitschias captain Jacques Burger has wished the Namibian side taking part in the sevens rugby tournament at Swakopmund the best of luck.
Burger said he was extremely proud of what Namibian rugby had achieved over the years.
The Safland Sevens Rugby Tournament is taking place at Swakopmund this weekend.
“I think the whole Namibia will be behind the boys as they start the tournament and so will I.
“I look forward to seeing what Namibian rugby can come up with because the potential in this country is enormous and it starts with the sevens because it is a small focus area and it is easier to get seven players together than a national team,” he said.
Burger added that if the sevens team can succeed at this tournament, they eventually will play against world-class teams.
“I wish the team all the best and hope they can win the tournament,” he said.
Burger thanked the participating teams who have made time to come to Namibia for the tournament.
“I would like to thank all the competing teams and I think for them to make an effort to make it here and to play this tournament is great. I think it is a tournament that will grow and grow and if the Namibian team does well it will be a very popular competition in the future,” he said.
“It is amazing that we are hosting more tournaments like this and growing the game of rugby. If we want to get people to invest in our bigger plan to develop the game in Namibia then we need to organise tournaments like this.”
The manager of Namibia’s sevens rugby team, Robert Dickson, said his team was aiming to reach the finals.
“We believe that after our impressive performance in the sevens tournament we just played in Kenya, we can make it to the final. It will be fun to play South Africa or Germany in that last match of the competition,” he said.
The Namibian sevens team finished second in the Africa Rugby Sevens Cup held in Nairobi, Kenya, in October. The result qualified them for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Rugby Sevens World Series to be held in Hong Kong in April 2017.
Rugby sevens is a variant of rugby in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves.
The Safland Sevens Rugby Tournament will see international teams such as South Africa''s famed Blitzbokke battling it out with the Namibia sevens rugby team.
South Africa won the maiden edition of the tournament that was held in Windhoek last year.
Other invited teams competing in the tournament include Zambia, Living Legends, SA All Stars, Kenya, Namibia Academy, Germany and Botswana.
- additional reporting by NAMPA