Safland teams well prepared The Namibia rugby sevens team will need to work harder if they are to raise their standards going forward. But still work to be done Coach of the Namibia Rugby Sevens team Jurie Booysen says teams which participated in the competition were very impressive from the start.The tournament kicked-off on Friday while the finals and semis of the competition were expected to be played late yesterday afternoon.
Speaking in a telephonic interview from Swakopmund, Booysen reiterated about the quality of the team’s on display.
“The competition so far has been very tough because the international teams came very well prepared. The tournament has been organised very well and we are very happy with that.
“We struggled in the competition against these top teams in view of the fact that they came with wealth of experience.
“We have only been together now for about a month while the teams we played against has been together for many years,” he said.
The coach further added that there is a need for the team to become a professional side if they want to raise the standards and do well in international competitions.
He believes that the quickest way this can be done is when the players spend more time together.
Booysen however, believes that the team has gained experience and this will help the development of the team in the future.
In some of the results, Namibia’s senior national rugby sevens team on Saturday beat South Africa’s All Stars 31-19 in their opening game of the Safland Sevens Rugby tournament underway in Swakopmund.
The three-day tournament started on Friday with club and school teams competing, while the main event with the senior teams competing started Saturday.
In the opening minutes of the game, Namibia ran in three tries through Handre Bezuidenhout, Ricardo Swartz and Shareave Titus to give them a 17-0 lead just four minutes into the game.
Helarius Kisting only managed to convert once from the three tries.
The All Star team responded with a try just a minute later and it was converted.
Nandi Karuwombe then extended Namibia’s lead just before the half-time break with a brilliant individual try which Riaan van Zyl converted.
The half-time score was 24-07 for Namibia.
In the second half Titus scored Namibia’s only try in that half and Van Zyl once again converted to extend their lead to 31-07.
Despite being dominated throughout the match, the All Stars scored two more tries but only converted from one to give them the final score of 31-19.
South Africa Living Legends 27-05 Namibia Academy
This is the results of some of the matches which were played on Saturday in the coastal town.
Zambia 19-17 Eye of the Tiger (South Africa)
Namibia 05-29 Kenya
Namibia Academy 05-24 Eye of the Tiger
Living Legends 44-0 Botswana
Kenya 40-07 South Africa All Stars
Namibia 12-29 Germany
Zambia 12-36 South Africa Living Legends
Namibia Academy 12-07 Botswana
All the results of the competition will be available by Tuesday.
Kaino Nghitongo and Jesse Jackson Kauraisa
Additional reporting by NAMPA