Africa-Press – Namibia. UNAM sounded an early warning for the upcoming rugby season when they outplayed Wanderers 35-7 in the final to win the United Tens Rugby tournament on Saturday.
Due to overnight rain the venue had to be changed at the last minute to United’s B field, but the organisation ran smoothly and a large crowd turned out to see some excellent matches in the traditional precursor to the Namibian club season.
Both teams remained unbeaten during the group stages, although Unam had to pull out all the stops against Grootfontein, as they were held to a 14-all draw.
They, however, comfortably beat Western Suburbs 19-0 and Rehoboth 29-5 to qualify for the semifinals, where they beat United 14-0 to make it through to the final.
Wanderers eased through their group matches, beating Kudus 29-5 and United 19-12 to qualify for the semifinals, where they comfortably beat Grootfontein 22-12.
In the final, Unam took an early lead when their national centre Lesley Klim went on a storming run to open their try scoring account, and just before half time Peter Diergaardt burst over to put them 14-0 ahead at the break.
Wanderers reduced the deficit to 14-7 when wing Warren Ludwig followed up a kick ahead to score, but any hopes of a comeback were soon dispelled as Unam went into overdrive, and further tries by Oderich Mouton, Klim’s second one and Lorenzo Louis gave them a commanding victory.
It was an impressive victory and their new coach David Philander, who joined the players in joyous celebrations afterwards, was ecstatic with the result.
“It was magnificent and as you can hear my voice is also gone, it was awesome stuff. We made a couple of changes, we brought in some players and we are building a new team culture, but the main priority is just for the guys to have fun, while doing what they love doing. I think it’s a factor that’s been missing from the game for some time and we are just trying to make it fun for the guys again and we are looking forward to the rest of the season,” he said.
“We played the final for certain guys today, a couple of guys were good friends with the Wanderers player who just lost his life Oneal de Wee, while we also played for one of our players whose family is having medical issues, and that’s why the boys put up a big performance,” he added.
Wanderers’ coach Rohan Kitshoff said he was not too worried about their defeat.
“I think we let ourselves down there a bit in the final, but honestly we never came into this tournament, seeing it as one of our goals to win the United Tens – our goal is to do well during the season and this was just part of our preparation. So I think if you look at it like that then it served its purpose. There’s a lot of things that we still need to work on but overall I think the guys did well,” he said.
“Obviously the league is not a Tens league, it’s a 15-man game, so it’s a whole different ball game and we will have a different approach for that,” he added.
In the Women’s Sevens competition, Unam and Wanderers also met in the final, but this time Wanderers came out on top, winning the title with a comfortable 19-0 victory.
Wanderers, who led 5-0 any half time, scored three tries through Shanaaz de Wee, Waemy Haindongo and Pauline Joel, while Ida Visagie added two conversions.
Wanderers coach Janice Beukes said it was a great tournament.
“It was really tough, the women really came out in full force today, from the coast to Grootfontein and it was a wonderful tournament, so I have to thank all of them because if they were not here it would not have been possible.
This is huge for Wanderers because we are trying to set a trend and to build consistency, so hats off to all the female teams that were here today but Im really proud of my girls – they really stepped up and played for each other and the club, but most of all they played for God and thats what I’m thankful for,” she said.
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