Three-horse race as second round begins 

The second round of the Namibian Rugby Premier League commences tomorrow with three teams locked in a tight title race at the top of the log. 

FNB Grootfontein lead the log on 37 points from eight matches, but FNB Wanderers and Montego United are only two points behind, while they both have a match in hand. All three teams are favourites to win their matches tomorrow, and stretch their lead on the chasing pack, which includes the defending champions FNB Kudus, who have a bye this weekend. 

The pick of the weekend’s matches will probably be at the United field where United host an improving FNB Rehoboth Rugby Club. 

Rehoboth had a poor start to the league, losing their opening four matches, which included a 34-14 home defeat to United, and by 10 May were rock bottom of the log. 

Since then, however, they have improved considerably, going on an unbeaten run of three matches, which included a 35-26 home win against FNB Unam and a 44-19 away win against FNB Western Suburbs, to move up to sixth place on the log. 

United coach Herman Lintvelt said they wont take Rehoboth for granted. 

“We beat them quite comfortably in our first round match in Rehoboth, but they have improved a lot since then, so we don’t want to take anything for granted or look too far ahead.”

“Like all Rehoboth teams they will have a quick backline and we will have to do the basics right – if we kick for touch we must kick it out, and we will have to organise our defensive lines so that they can’t counter-attack, which is one of their strong points,” he added. 

Lintvelt said teams’ defences will play a big factor in the title race. 

“We’ve had more than a week off and we’ve been working hard on our defence. If you look at the results so far you will see there have been a lot of close matches and I think defence is going to play a crucial role between winning and losing in the remaining matches.”

“We don’t have any injuries – Ben Burger is back after injuring his shoulder against Zambia, so he will probably start at eighthman, while our captain DJ Holtzhausen is also back from injury,” he added. 

Big boost for United 

United, meanwhile, received a big boost last Friday when Montego Pet Nutrition announced a three-year sponsorship of N$500 000 per year and Lintvelt said it will help the club a lot. 

“It is a massive boost for our club, if you look at the challenges that we face to  run sport in Namibia. I think anyone who’s involved in sport at club level, whether its rugby or soccer or whatever, does it for the love of the sport, but there are huge challenges, so a sponsorship like this is fantastic. At United we have a lot of players who are still students, who don’t have a fixed job, while some of the players are from outside Windhoek, like Rehoboth, so maybe we can assist them with basic things like travelling expenses, but we still need to decide how we will use the funds,” he said. 

“But with a sponsorship like this there is also responsibility and pressure because a sponsor wants returns on their investment with results on the field, and that is our job as the coaching staff and players to repay the trust they have in us,” he added. 

“We’ve been going for 112 years through thick and thin, and through good times and tough times. For a long time we couldn’t be part of the FNB sponsorship to rugby clubs but we carried on and this sponsorship will definitely make it easier for us as a club. At the end of the day it’s about the survival of the club as well as the players, so we must still see how we will do that,” he said. 

Grootfontein, meanwhile, will start as heavy favourites when they host FNB Western Suburbs at Grootfontein.

Grootfontein have only lost one of their eight matches to date, while Suburbs have lost all seven their matches and are rooted to the bottom of the log.

Wanderers are also expected to maintain their title challenge with a win against FNB Dolphins at the coast, while FNB Unam should also start as the favourites when they host FNB Reho Falcon at the Unam Stadium. 

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