{"id":40928,"date":"2023-03-09T16:06:01","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T16:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia"},"modified":"2023-03-09T16:22:57","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T16:22:57","slug":"hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia","title":{"rendered":"Hardwick happy to play for Namibia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>RICHARD Hardwick’s Super Rugby Pacific form is set to see him rewarded with a Rugby World Cup berth, only not with the Wallabies.<\/p>\n

The Melbourne flanker was a stand-out in their tight loss to competition heavyweights the Hurricanes last round.<\/p>\n

As well as his work around the breakdown Hardwick scored two tries as the Rebels rallied back from from 24-7 down at halftime before a six-point loss, earning him bragging rights over winger and teammate Monty Ioane.<\/p>\n

The pair are set to cross paths in the group stage at the World Cup in France later this year, with Ioane representing Italy and Hardwick his country of birth, Namibia.<\/p>\n

With two Wallabies caps in 2017, Hardwick said he was told last year by then coach Dave Rennie he was not part of his plans so he turned to Namibia, where he lived before his family relocated to Western Australia.<\/p>\n

Despite Rennie making way for Eddie Jones, Hardwick, who earned his first cap for the southwest African nation late in 2022, has no regrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to Rennie and they just wanted to go down a different direction, younger players and a different style of rugby that’s not ideally suited for me, which is fine,\u201d Hardwick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I just took things in my own hands – there’s a few things in my life that I’d love to accomplish before retiring and I’m not getting any younger so the opportunity came up last year in November to go over and play for Namibia and potentially get a crack at a World Cup so I wasn’t going to wait around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardwick said his move to the rugby minnows meant a lot to his family and in particular his father Anthony, who had represented the nation at a number of sports, foremost cricket.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I can do a lot of good in Namibian rugby, not only representing them, but in developing … bring my experience from Australian rugby and at an international level as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was also pretty special for my dad, he represented Namibia in cricket, golf and squash so that’s pretty special to have two generations who have played for the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave up quite a lot to move us to Australia and give us the life that we have now and I’m very grateful for that so giving back for both my parents is pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardwick and his Rebels will hunt their first win of the season on Friday night at AAMI Park against the NSW Waratahs.<\/p>\n

Boasting a back-row that contains former Wallabies skipper Michael Hooper and new sensation Langi Gleeson, the Waratahs posted an impressive win over Fijian Drua last round.<\/p>\n

Hardwick said confidence was building in Melbourne that they could match it with the best in the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’ve got a dangerous back-row and you can’t underestimate them – they’re going to put on big shots, they’re going to be a menace at the breakdown, they’re going to have big ball carriers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to stick together as a unit to try and nullify them and we’ve got a couple of plans around that but for the most part, it’s going to be a team effort, just to stay on top of them and frustrate them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. RICHARD Hardwick’s Super Rugby Pacific form is set to see him rewarded with a Rugby World Cup berth, only not with the Wallabies. The Melbourne flanker was a stand-out in their tight loss to competition heavyweights the Hurricanes last round. As well as his work around the breakdown Hardwick scored two tries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":40925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-40928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nHardwick happy to play for Namibia - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"RICHARD Hardwick's Super Rugby Pacific form is set to see him rewarded with a Rugby World Cup berth, only not with the W ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hardwick happy to play for Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RICHARD Hardwick's Super Rugby Pacific form is set to see him rewarded with a Rugby World Cup berth, only not with the W ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-09T16:06:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-09T16:22:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678366302.65.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Hardwick happy to play for Namibia\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-09T16:06:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-09T16:22:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia\"},\"wordCount\":573,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678366302.65.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia\",\"name\":\"Hardwick happy to play for Namibia - Namibia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678366302.65.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-09T16:06:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-09T16:22:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"RICHARD Hardwick's Super Rugby Pacific form is set to see him rewarded with a Rugby World Cup berth, only not with the W ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678366302.65.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678366302.65.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":670,\"caption\":\"Hardwick happy to play for Namibia\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hardwick happy to play for Namibia\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\",\"name\":\"Namibia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hardwick happy to play for Namibia - Namibia","description":"RICHARD Hardwick's Super Rugby Pacific form is set to see him rewarded with a Rugby World Cup berth, only not with the W ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hardwick happy to play for Namibia","og_description":"RICHARD Hardwick's Super Rugby Pacific form is set to see him rewarded with a Rugby World Cup berth, only not with the W ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia","og_site_name":"Namibia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2023-03-09T16:06:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-09T16:22:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":670,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678366302.65.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Hardwick happy to play for Namibia","datePublished":"2023-03-09T16:06:01+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-09T16:22:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia"},"wordCount":573,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678366302.65.jpg","keywords":["africa press","Africa Press-Namibia","namibia"],"articleSection":["all news","sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia","name":"Hardwick happy to play for Namibia - Namibia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678366302.65.jpg","datePublished":"2023-03-09T16:06:01+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-09T16:22:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"RICHARD Hardwick's Super Rugby Pacific form is set to see him rewarded with a Rugby World Cup berth, only not with the W ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678366302.65.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1678366302.65.jpg","width":750,"height":670,"caption":"Hardwick happy to play for Namibia"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/hardwick-happy-to-play-for-namibia#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hardwick happy to play for Namibia"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/","name":"Namibia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}