Africa-Press – Namibia. The top four teams in the Namibia Rugby Premier League opened up a sizable gap on the rest of field after the fifth round of matches on Saturday.
FNB Wanderers maintained their unbeaten status with a 29-0 win away to FNB Rehoboth to move up to 28 points at the top of the log, while FNB Kudus thumped FNB Western Suburbs 50-15 at Walvis Bay to go second on 19 points.
Trustco United overcame a spirited FNB Reho Falcon 45-31 to go third on 16 points, while FNB Grootfontein are fourth on 15 points after beating FNB Unam 37-20 at home.
Unam and Suburbs now trail eight points behind Grootfontein on seven points each, while Rehoboth (6), Reho Falcon (5) and FNB Dolphins (0) make up the rear.
At the United field, Falcons pushed United all the way, with the result in the balance till the closing stages.
United took an early lead through a try by Christo Gresse, converted by Ricardo Swartz, and went 12-0 ahead when Zander Bronkhorst went over from a maul.
Falcons opened their account with a try by Thomas Kali, but United went 19-5 ahead after Kamaa Kajau crashed over from a forward maul.
Falcons made a determined comeback with Dillon Kahmann cutting through the backline to score with Ashton van Wyk converting, and when both kickers added a penalty, United held a 22-15 lead going into halftime.
Swartz and Van Wyk traded penalties in the second half and with United leading 28-24 the game was still wide open.
Falcons bashed away at United’s defence, but were caught on the counter-attack when United centre JD Nel ran 70m clear to score a converted try as United pulled 35-24 ahead.
Falcons narrowed the deficit to 35-31 when flanker Marthinus Nekundi went over for a fine solo try, but United had the final say through a converted try by Callie Swanepoel, while Swartz added a late penalty.
United coach Robbie Dickson said he was satisfied with their performance.
“It was a good game and Reho Falcon really played well. We failed to exit a couple of times and gave them ball to run at us. We know they are dangerous when they do that, and there were a couple of mistakes on our side but overall I’m happy with the performance. I think our kicking was good from the tee and our defence was also good, so I’m happy with the result,” he said.
“We will just take it game by game and try and qualify for the semifinals,” he added.
Wanderers, meanwhile, recorded their fifth consecutive win with a 29-0 away to Rehoboth. Wanderers scored five tries through Danco Burger (two), Danie van der Merwe, Jacques Theron and Joe Losper, while Johnny Mwenyo added two conversions.
Kudus picked up maximum bonus points after scoring seven tries against Suburbs.
Justin Newman and Lucio Isaacs scored two tries each, and PJ Walters, Cameron Langenhoven and Zwandre Viviers one each, while Michael Koopman added four conversions and a penalty, and Kyle Wentzel two conversions.
Suburbs scored two tries through Delano van Wyk and Ethan Beukes, while Bronwon Willemse added a conversion and a penalty.
Grootfontein scored five tries in their win against Unam through Lasarus Joseph, Rudi Pretorius, Johannes Luttig, Wicus Jacobs and Oliver Mouton, while Uroel Marais added 12 points with the boot.
Unam scored three tries through Alcino Isaac, Shareave Titus and Don Beukes, while Aljarreau Zaahl added a conversion and Davitho van Wyk a penalty.
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