Challengers look to close on Wanderers' lead

The Namibia Rugby Union is expected to announce its national junior squad today to compete at the upcoming Rugby Africa Under-20 Barthes Cup tournament in Kenya.The preliminary squad under coaches Johan Zaayman and Jood Opperman recently returned from a tour to Gauteng and Limpopo, which included a promising win against the Blue Bulls U20 Presidents XV.The 36 players short-listed this week will be reduced to the final travelling squad of 28 for the upcoming task in Nairobi.Meanwhile, with the national U20 candidates still out of the reckoning, the NRU premier league resumes on Saturday with another four interesting and influential match-ups.The three rounds played so far has already delivered one change to the front-runner position, when FNB Wanderers overtook FNB Kudus after their contrasting result last weekend.Title holders Wanderers (17 points) is already the only team left with an unbeaten record. Coming off a 82-0 victory against FNB Dolphin at Swakopmund, Wanderers now awaits the visit of FNB Grootfontein (currently third, on 10) who despite valiant previous efforts has yet to achieve a first breakthrough win at the Wanderers field.Grootfontein captain Wikus Jacobs has led from the front, scoring one try in the win against Trustco United in round one, and four tries in last weekend’s 29-19 home in against FNB Reho Falcon.Second-placed FNB Kudus has a bye weekend, after being handed a 31-32 loss to United at Gemsbok Park last weekend. At halftime, Kudus were in the lead 17-10, but United delivered a determined comeback.United head coach Herman Lintvelt has been impressed with his young pack of forwards, which he says has an average age of about 23. “We were struggling in the scrums initially, but the players thrown into the deep end has responded well.“At Friday’s captain’s run, we lost our nr 8 Rudi Pieters to a knee injury that might keep him out for about six weeks, while Johan Brockman (prop) has already been out for about four weeks. We also played without JD Nel (centre), our captain.“Still, we scored two tries with our line-out mauls and we could have won by a bigger score if not for some wrong options and poor execution in the last few minutes while we were dominant.”Lintvelt’s men will take on Western Suburbs in Khomasdal on Saturday, with the latter looking to respond after conceding a 28-42 loss away to FNB Rehoboth.The NTV production team will deliver the live broadcast from the Dr Lemmer High School field for the southern town’s premier league derby. Coach Jacky Bock’s Rehoboth showed what they are capable of with six spectacular tries against Suburbs, but will be fully aware that hosts FNB Reho Falcon will enjoy nothing more than a repeat of last year’s 31-26 win at this venue. The live broadcast from 15:00 will be on the NTV channel, and online at https://oneuptwo.com/At Swakopmund, FNB Dolphin will look for a strong performance against 2024 finalists FNB Unam, who comes off a bye weekend looking to accumulate the maximum points and avenge their loss against Wanderers.&bull; Log standings, results, upcoming fixtures and news at www.fnbrugby.my.na/

Challengers look to close on Wanderers' lead

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Challengers look to close on Wanderers' lead

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