Namibia game for warm-up against Kings
After a week of intense training in Durban followed by a thumping 43-0 win over a Sharks Invitational XI, Namibia are raring to go for their World Cup warm-up clash against the Isuzu Southern Kings in Windhoek on Saturday.
Both teams are fine-tuning their plans for bigger battles and interim Kings head coach Robbi Kempson will welcome this chance to watch his squad perform in testing conditions.
The Windhoek game will be followed by the second clash at the Walvis Bay High School Stadium on September 7.
Former Wales No 8 Phil Davies, Namibia’s head coach, has a pool of just 900 players to choose from and all but a handful are full professionals playing outside the country.
The rest of the Namibian squad fit in training around their working lives, which means their coaches must understand the demands on these players who pull on the blue jersey as the lowest-ranked nation at the World Cup in Japan.
Davies has tried to increase the number of fully professional players in his squad.
“We spoke to Worcester’s [Windhoek-born] Anton Bresler, Divan Rossouw at the Bulls and Michal Haznar at the Griquas, and for one reason or another they are not available and that’s fine,” Davies said. “You have to respect that. “With fewer than 900 players who play domestic rugby in Namibia, to make the World Cup finals is an amazing testimony to this group of players.
“We have grown from an average age of 31 at the last World Cup to just over 24 this time, but we have more Test caps.”
One familiar name in the squad is former Cheetahs hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld, who now plays for French Pro D2 side Bayonne.
Namibia will play in Pool B at the World Cup, alongside Italy, SA, defending champions New Zealand and Canada.
They will play their first match against Italy on September 22 before a showdown against SA on September 28.
New Zealand are their third opponents on October 6 and they face Canada on October 13 in their final group match.
Namibia are preparing to appear at a sixth successive World Cup but are yet to claim their first tournament victory in 19 attempts.
In England four years ago, the Welwitschias lost to Argentina, New Zealand and Tonga, but picked up their first-ever World Cup point in a slim 1716 defeat to Georgia in Exeter.
At the World Rugby Nations Cup 2019 in Uruguay earlier in August, Namibia beat the hosts but lost to Russia and an Argentina XV.
The Southern Kings lost 24-20 to Georgia in a warm-up match in Tbilisi on Tuesday.