Cohesion growing in Welwitschias' performance

A spirited second-half performance by the Windhoek Draught Welwitschias against the SWD Eagles on Saturday indicates a promising learning curve for the group of locally-based players making their return to South African provincial competition.The visitors from the Southern Cape raced to a 28-3 lead late in the first half of the Mzansi Challenge match, before the Namibians worked over lock Johan Luttig for a well-taken try to make the half-time score 28-10.Tries by scrum half Sachin Toring, fly half Adrian van der Bank, left wing Rosco Syster and full back Darryn Fortuin, all converted by Van der Bank, put the Eagles comfortably ahead, showing enterprise in their backline play to expose some defensive frailties in the home side.From there on, SWD could only add one more penalty to win the match 31-22, despite the Welwitschias scoring two more tries and creating more than enough opportunities to have taken the victory.While fly half André van der Berg continues to grow in his role as playmaker, he also committed some costly, uncharacteristic errors, including a knock-on and at least three wayward touch kicks off awarded penalties.StabilityVan der Berg took over the leadership when the Namibians lost flank and captain Prince !Gaoseb with a rib injury after barely 20 minutes. !Gaoseb’s replacement Le Beau du Preez made a solid impact as a ball carrier and defender along with the likes of Luttig, Max Katjijeko and others.The impact off the bench by the front-rowers Herschell van Wyk, former Lions and US Major League Rugby hooker Pieter Jansen and tight head youngster Herman Coetzee also provided stability.The Namibian line-out was effective and the forwards were confident in their ball carrying and offloading, while hooker Wikus Jacobs gave the last pass to left wing Lloyd Jacobs for his try in the corner after half-time that deflated the deficit to 28-15.The Namibians also finished the 80th minute with an effective line-out maul that was rounded off with a try by Jansen, converted by Henrique Olivier.The centre pairing of Danco Burger and Justin Newman did a lot of good work as well, despite a second-half miss where Newman’s final pass did not find an unmarked Burger who should have gone over in the corner.“There were some system errors to be corrected. It was only the second match for this group and things are already looking a lot better. It was a match of missed opportunities for us, but I’m looking forward to what this group can achieve,” head coach Chrysander Botha said afterwards.With !Gaoseb and fellow flank Cameron Langenhoven (knock to the head) as injury concerns this week, the Namibians will possibly consider some squad rotation as they prepare to host one of the competition’s leading teams, the Valke, in Windhoek this coming Saturday.

Cohesion growing in Welwitschias' performance

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Republikein 2026-08-11

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Cohesion growing in Welwitschias' performance

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Republikein 2026-08-11

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