The national senior men’s rugby team, the Welwitchias were on Saturday thumped 8-90 against the South African outfit, the Blue Bulls at the Hage Geingob Stadium in Windhoek.

In their first outing for the year, the Welwitschias took on the Vodacom Blue Bulls in a match that served as preparation for their test match against Portugal on 13 July and the Africa Cup that will be held in Uganda at the end of July.

The Namibian team, predominantly composed of local-based players, received one of their toughest rugby lessons as the visitors rampaged over them.

In what turned out to be a one-sided affair the Blue Bulls ran in seven tries in the first half compared to their opponents who just managed to get on the scoreboard through a spot kick.

The first-half score was 3-47.

The Blue Bulls continued to dominate in the second half, running in seven more tries while the home team only managed to score one try, through Alcino Izaacs, but they missed the conversion.

With their upcoming fixtures in July, the Welwitsc
hias will have to go back to the drawing board and relook at their strategies, after conceding so many tries in their first match of the year. Their previous heaviest defeat was against France in September 2023, where they lost 0-92 during their group stage match at the 2023 World Cup in France.

Vodacom Blue Bulls try scorers are Devon Williams, Jaco van der Walt, Boeta Chamberlain (two tries), Corne Beets (two tries), Francois Klopper, Sergeal Petersen, Aphiwe Dyantyi, Stravino Jacobs (two tries), Henry Immelman and Juann Else.

The Bulls were also awarded a penalty try while Jaco van der Walt took all the successful conversions and two of the conversions were taken by Chamberlain which he missed.

In an interview with Nampa after the match Welwitschias captain Prince !Gaoseb said they had a tough encounter on the day but it’s good preparation for the team ahead of their international friendly with Portugal.

‘The level of rugby on the day was completely different as we were outplayed but the match was a go
od experience for the boys and we are now looking forward to our game against Portugal where we will look at all our mistakes from here and try to improve on them,’ he said.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency