Namibia announces squad for Rugby Africa Gold Cup

Namibia announces squad for Rugby Africa Gold Cup

Namibia Rugby (www.NRU.com.na) proudly announce a 44 man squad including a group of standby players in the build up to the Gold Cup in the event to qualify for RWC 2019 in Japan.

The Namibian squad consists of the following players:

1 Botha, Chrysander
2 Bothma, Renaldo
3 Coetzee, Johannes (Aranos)
4 Conradie, Wian
5 De Klerk, AJ
6 De la Harpe, Darryl
7 Deysel, Johan
8 Du Toit, Janry
9 Greyling, JC
10 Jantjies, Eugene
11 Katjijeko, Max
12 Kisting, Helarius (TC)
13 Kitshoff, Rohan
14 Klim, Lesley
15 Loubser, Cliven
16 Ludick, Ruan
17 Ludick, Adriaan
18 Newman, Justin
19 Nortje, Obert
20 Retief, Johan
21 Rossouw, Divan
22 Sethie, Desiderius
23 Steenkamp, PW
24 Stevens, Damian
25 Theron, Nelius
26 Tjeriko, Mahepisa
27 Uanivi, Tjiuee
28 Van der Westhuizen, Louis
29 Van Jaarsveld, Torsten
30 Van Lill, Pieter-Jan
31 Venter, Janco
32 Viviers, Casper
33 Von Wielligh, Wihan
34 Wilson, Gino

The following players are on standby in case of injury or unavailability:

1 Smith, Collen
2 Forbes, Thomasau
3 Goaseb, Prince
4 Van der Merwe, Christo
5 Rademeyer, André
6 Berg, Nian
7 Plato, Chad
8 Philander, David
9 Van Wyk, Russell
10 Tromp, Johann

The Director of Rugby and head coach of the National Team, Phil Davies, is pleased that he could get his best players available for the Gold Cup campaign except a few key players still recovering from injuries. The squad is well balanced between experience and youth and he is excited about his team’s chances in clinging their sixth consecutive Rugby Africa title.

Phil Davies explains: “We believe that home-based Namibian players provide the heartbeat of the National team, therefore we have implemented a plan in our National Academy to increase the number of quality home-based players participating in the Super Sport Rugby Challenge and the Currie Cup competitions has been a huge help in this development.”

“Namibia Rugby has introduced 25 new players at senior level over the past two years, including many of our outstanding Under 20 players through a succession plan, which now boasts over 112 players that clearly identifies the spine of our squads for RWC 2019 & 2023” Davies said.

According to Davies who is very excited about the forth-coming challenges, believe this promise to be Namibia’s toughest World Cup qualifying group of matches of the past ten years.

“Despite the hefty challenge we are confident that we have developed and assembled a very strong squad with the relevant talent, mental strength and depth to meet those challenges,” Davies said

The Gold cup kicks off with a home game against Uganda on Saturday 16 June followed by Tunisia to visit Namibia on 23 June. The first away game for the team to travel to Morocco on the 30th June. Zimbabwe follows in Buluwayo on the 4th August with the final game against Kenya in the Hage Geingob stadium on the 18th August.