Kenya loose to Namibia in 2004 Africa Rugby Cup

 

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September 13 2004

 

The national rugby team returns today after a humiliating 65-7 defeat at the hands of Namibia in an African Rugby Confederation (CAR) match in Windhoek on Saturday.

Details of what transpired in Windhoek were still scarce yesterday but shoddy preparations by Kenya ahead of such an important game definitely contributed to the huge loss to the 2003 World Cup qualifiers. Kenya played barely 24 hours after landing in Windhoek on Friday afternoon

A poor crowd of less than 1 000 attended the match at the Hage  Geingob Rugby Stadium on Saturday.

The match was part of the Confederation of African Rugby Cup (CAR) which is played annually.

 

Namibia will now play Zimbabwe in the semi-final of the competition after the latter beat Uganda 17-0 also on Saturday.

 

Namibia opened the floodgates as early as the fifth minute when winger Rian van Wyk dotted down, after a lovely build-up by the Namibian back line in a move initiated by fullback Hendrik Meyer from his own half.

 

Namibian flyhalf Morne Schreuder converted the try.

After three minutes of play from the first try, Namibia's mercurial flanker Schalk van der Merwe capitalised on a lose ball

from the base of the Kenyan scrum, to place it for the second after he found himself about two meters away from the try-line.

 

Schreuder made no mistake with the conversion to put his side 14-0 ahead.

 

Namibia led 31-0 at the break.

Mwirigi Kinagwi in action against Namibia

 

Veteran winger Jaco Kotze went for the third try, after a clean ball from a well-organised Namibian pack of forwards.

 

Kotze sprinted to the line after a perfect build-up from the centre pair of captain Corne Powell and Du Preez Grobler, who

evaded some tackles before leaving room for the winger for the try in the far corner.

 

Schreuder missed the conversion, but that did not deter the hard-tackling Namibian back line to set-up Herman Lintvelt for

another try, just 12 minutes before the break.

 

Schreuder was on target to put tha tally at 26-0.

 

Pieter Rossouw managed to grab one more just three minutes before the break, to send the Namibians to the dressing room with their heads high.

 

The Kenyan side struggled in the line-outs and also had a tough go in the scrums against the Namibians who proved well organised on all fronts.

 

Forward Cor van Tonder was in impressive form as he stormed into his opponents half on various occasions in attempts to cross the advantage line, while lock Domingo Kamonga was a worthy towering figure in the line-outs.

 

Robert Dedig and newcomer Martyn Jeary also did steady work in the scrums during the match.

 

Namibia spent the opening 15 minutes in the Kenyan half, and only allowed the visitors for little periods of time in their half

as they (Kenya), tried playing a kicking game instead.

 

The second half was not different with Namibia keeping the Kenyans on their back foot.

 

The bulky but fast Meyer, who played a blinder at fullback, was rewarded with a try within 10 minutes at the start of the second half, leaving the door open for some of his team-mates to also have a taste of scoring.

Next was Lintvelt who went for his second try, followed by Schreuder for his first, with Kotze also going for his second.

 

The scoreline stood at 55-0 after the three tries. Substitutes JJ Husselman and Roger Thompson completed the Namibian points haul, but Kenya found a consolation try through winger Oscar Osir, who caught the Namibian back line off-guard as

he outpaced some to score.

 

Tito Oduk who plays for the Rhinos back in Kenya, converted the try to make it 65-7.

 

  

 

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