Namibia national rugby union team

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Namibia
Union	Namibia Rugby Union
Nickname(s)	Welwitschias
Emblem(s)	African Fish Eagle
Coach	Hakkies Husselman
Captain	Kees Lensing
Team colours
First international
Namibia 0 - 9  British and Irish Lions (5 July 1955)
Largest win
Namibia  116 - 0  Madagascar (June 15, 2002)
Worst defeat
Australia  142 - 0  Namibia (October 25, 2003)
World Cup
Appearances	3 (First in 1999)
Best result	Bottom of pool, 1999, 2003, 2007

The Namibian rugby union team, nicknamed the Welwitschias or Biltongboere, represents Namibia at rugby union. Although they are a tier-three nation in the International Rugby Board (IRB) tier system, the team have participated all three Rugby World Cup competitions since their first appearance in 1999. They are governed by the Namibia Rugby Union.

Namibia has been playing international rugby since the early 1900s. As well as having competed at the World Cup, Namibia annually competes in the Africa Cup. Until independence, players for Namibia were also eligible to represent South Africa, with Namibian born Springboks including Jan Ellis and, more recently, Percy Montgomery.

[edit] History

Rugby union has been played in the country since 1916 when it was introduced by migrants from South Africa. Before Namibia gained its independence in 1990, the team, as South West Africa, played in South Africa's domestic club competition, the Currie Cup. The team achieved their best result in the 1989 season, where they finished third.

The Namibia Rugby Union was only formed in March 1990, and it joined the International Rugby Board in the same month. Independence came too late for Namibia to qualify for Rugby World Cup 1991. Hardened by regular, tough competition in the Currie Cup, the first few years of Namibian rugby union were relatively successful, their highest point being 2-0 home series victories over Ireland and Italy in 1991. That year the Welwitschias won all 10 of their Tests, the others being five victories against Zimbabwe and one against Portugal in Lisbon.

During the international seasons Namibia played six games; the first of which was a 55-23 win over Zimbabwe. Following another victiory over Zimbabwe, in 1993 Namibia played Wales in Windhoek, losing 23-38. Namibia completed big victories over the Arabian Gulf, Kenya and Zimbabwe in the initial rounds of 1995 Rugby World Cup qualifying.

Russia toured Namibia in 1994, defeating the home team 31-12 in Windhoek. Although Namibia defeated Zimbabwe that year, the team lost to Côte d'Ivoire and drew with Morocco (all in Casablanca). In 1996 Namibia played two matches; losing 13-15 to Zimbabwe, and then defeating them by one point in a subsequent meeting. They played two games in 1997 as well, losing to Tonga and Zimbabwe.

During 1998 Namibia took part in the African tournaments for 1999 Rugby World Cup qualification. They started out in Round 3, where they finished second in the pool behind Zimbabwe on points difference (defeating Zimbabwe but losing to Tunisia). Namibia defeated Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco and Zimbabwe to qualify for the 1999 Rugby World Cup.

The 1999 World Cup marked their debut at the tournament and since then they have been Africa's second representative alongside South Africa. While they suffered heavy defeats by France, Fiji and Canada, they took pride in scoring an early try and being level with France after 20 minutes.

However with a tiny player base, and starved of frequent or strong competition, the team has deteriorated in recent years. Recent defeats to Morocco mean they are ranked below the North African side. Their record in the World Cups has been poor, and they haven't managed a win. Their record defeat, 142-0 against Australia in the 2003 tournament, led to some questioning the presence of the minor teams at the tournament.

Namibia initially struggled in the qualifiers for the 2007 tournament, suffering a shock defeat to Kenya, their first ever to the East African nation, and another to Tunisia. After the Kenya defeat they slumped to 28th in the IRB rankings. However, after defeating Tunisia at home they were effectively through to two deciding matches against Morocco, to determine which of the two African nations would make it to France in 2007. They convincingly won both legs, qualifying for the World Cup.

As the lowest ranked team at the start of the 2007 World Cup, they were given no chance in their opening game of against Ireland. However, they put up a convincing performance, losing 17-32, and scoring two tries, with one of Ireland's tries being of controversial nature. However, they were convincingly beaten in their remaining games, against France, Argentina and Georgia respectively, to end the tournament winless.

[edit] World Cup record

• 1987/1991 - Did not enter
• 1995 - Did not qualify
• 1999/2003/2007 - Qualified

[edit] International results

Namibia scores first

[edit] Record against other Nations

Their Test match record against all nations, updated to 26 September 2007, is as follows:^[1]

Nation	Games	Won	Lost	Drawn	Percentage of wins
Arabian Gulf	1	1	0	0	100%
Argentina	2	0	2	0	0%
Australia	1	0	1	0	0%
Botswana	1	1	0	0	100%
British and Irish Lions	4	0	4	0	0%
Canada	1	0	1	0	0%
Côte d'Ivoire	2	1	1	0	50%
Fiji	1	0	1	0	0%
France	5	0	5	0	0%
Georgia	2	0	2	0	0%
Germany	1	1	0	0	100%
Ireland	4	2	2	0	50%
Italy	3	2	1	0	66.7%
Kenya	5	4	1		80%
Madagascar	2	2	0	0	100%
Morocco	7	4	2	1	57.1%
Portugal	3	3	0	0	100%
Romania	2	0	2	0	0%
Russia	1	0	1	0	0%
Samoa	1	0	1	0	0%
South Africa	1	0	1	0	0%
Tonga	1	0	1	0	0%
Tunisia	5	2	3	0	40%
Uganda	2	1	1	0	50%
Uruguay	1	0	1	0	0%
Romania	2	0	2	0	0%
Wales	3	0	3	0	0%
West Germany	1	1		0	100%
Zambia	2	2	0	0	100%
Zimbabwe	22	19	3	0	86.4%
Total	87	46	40	1	52.9%

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• Namibia Rugby Union

[edit] External links

• Namibianrugby.com working together with the Namibian rugby union.
• Namibian rugby union news from Planet Rugby
• Namibia World Cup 2007 Preview (in Portuguese)
• Namibia World Cup 2007 Preview & follow-up (in French)