Suburbs hold on to top-four spot

The small margins in round 10 of the Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) premier league were simply incredible – with each of the four matches decided by either one or two points.

FNB Unam hosted FND Western Suburbs in a derby match where Unam were considered slight favourites, having the likes of Lorenzo Louis, Desiderius Sethie and Alcino Izaacs back in the match-day squad.

The game lived up to the high expectations as Western Suburbs won the game 34-33.

Unam started off well, with Aljarreau Zaahl opening matters with a penalty, but Suburbs responded right after with a try set up by fly-half Justin Nel for left wing Jason Morkel.

Nel was having a good game as he intercepted an attempted kick by Alcino Izaaks to score a try shortly before the end of the first half. Scrum-half Bronwon Willemse stepped up for the conversion, as Suburbs went into halftime leading 28-19.

TIGHT SECOND HALF

Unam came out stronger as captain Graham April scored the first try in the second half to bring the score to 28-34.

Desiderius Sethie gave his team hope as he scored a try in the 79th minute with Unam just in need of a conversion to win the game but Aljarreau Zaahl, who wasn’t at his best, couldn’t convert and the game ended 34-33 in favour of FNB Western Suburbs.

Graham April after the game said: ”We started the game really slow just like last weekend, we need to start with the right tempo. We have a few guys who returned to the team, that’s good for us.”

Suburbs captain Gino Wilson was happy with his team’s performance. “It doesn’t matter by how many points we won, it was just very important for us to win.

“Three wins on the road, which is great, because we had a slow start in the first round.”

UNITED KEEP ON ROLLING

Trustco United achieved another fighting away win when they survived 30-28 against FNB Rehoboth.

Lanky lock Thehard Lintvelt was an unlikely hero scoring three tries, with a fourth added by scrum-half Jahno du Plessis. Full-back Renier Benade added two penalties and two conversions.

The Philistines overcame yellow cards shown to reserve hooker Arnu Gouws as well as flank and captain Eloff du Plessis.

Rehoboth, who also saw sinbinnings to wing Keathan Freygang and nr. 8 Edward Drotsky, ended up with three tries, which meant that they only came away with one losing bonus point.

The Red Bulls try scorers were Freygang, centre Nando Dentlinger and flank Chase Diergaardt. Fly-half Henrique Olivier once agains showed his worth with two conversions and three penalties.

ONE-POINT MATCH AT GROOTFONTEIN

FNB Grootfontein registered only their second win in the league when they edged their home match against FNB Reho Falcon 45-44.

Scrumhalf Dillan Kahmann scored three tries for Reho Falcon, along with five-pointers to wing Prince January and flank Keynnen Basson.

Enrique Husselmann, playing at wing, had a great day from the kicking tee with five conversions and three penaltie, for a total of 16 points.

Grootfontein went ahead 12-0 early and also held a lead of 26-13, but the determined visitors gradually closed the gap to a see-saw battle into the thirties. Falcon was ahead 44-38 before the northern team produced a late winning try.

Grootfontein took the maximum six log points with a total of seven tries on the day. Two were scored by centre Buruxa Geiseb and one each by wing Ian Grobbelaar, the locks Marthinus Nekundi and Oliver Mouton, prop Renard Hattingh and hooker Frikkie Engelbrecht. Conversions were added by full-back Ronald Deck (3) and fly-half Jan Breedt (2).

WJ Otto, former national schools captain and number 8, was shown the only yellow card of the match.

• Also read: Wanderers take lead in premier league.

• Log standings, results, fixtures and news at www.fnbrugby.my.na/