Burger spells out RWC qualifying strategy

Rugby
Otis Daniels
  • 2 Days Ago 29 January 2025
Namibia's director of rugby, Jacques Burger announced and outlined some key developments and strategies aimed at strengthening rugby in the country in a vital World Cup qualifying year.

Burger emphasised at a press conference yesterday that the key focus of the Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) will be the national team’s preparations for the Africa Cup in July and qualification for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.

“The MTC Senior Men's Regional 15s Tournament is designed to enhance the performance and visibility of Namibian rugby talent at a regional level. The objectives are to foster pride, strengthen regional rugby structures, identify and develop talent for national teams, promote rugby as a unifying sport across Namibia and to provide players with competitive match experience in a high-performance setting,” he said.



Pathway

Burger hailed the regional tournament as a crucial step in Namibia’s journey towards global rugby success, in addition to a number of fixtures to prepare the national squad.

Namibia will take on Boland on 22 February in Windhoek, before the Blue Bulls will visit on 17 June at a coastal venue yet to be announced and also on 21 June in Windhoek.

Additional fixtures against a Barbarian side made up of local players are yet to be finalised and will be announced in due course, he confirmed.

Burger highlighted that the MTC Senior Men's Regional 15 tournament represents a significant opportunity to enhance the development of rugby in Namibia by leveraging regional competition and fostering talent at senior level.

“The NRU aims to create a sustainable pathway for players to excel nationally and internationally. The event is thus designed to provide regional players with a platform to demonstrate their skills and secure opportunities to progress within the national rugby structure,” he said.



Fixtures and format

The regional series will kick off on 22 February in Windhoek. The second leg of the tournament will take place in Rehoboth on 1 March, with the final leg scheduled for 8 March in Windhoek.

The tournament will feature four regional teams competing for top honours. There will be two teams from the Khomas region, one team from the coastal region while the two Rehoboth teams will join forces with Grootfontein in the fourth team.

“The Coastal team will consist of players from Dolphin, Kudus and Sparta. The first Central region team will accommodate players from Wanderers and Western Suburbs, with players from United and Unam forming the second team. Players from Reho Falcon, Rehoboth Rugby Club and Grootfontein will come in contention for the fourth regional combination.

“We will also use a lot of our younger under 20 players to give them the opportunity to play, ” Burger explained.

Each team will play a round-robin format culminating in a final match on 8 March. Each squad will consist of 35 players with 25 to be part of each match-day squad.

“The high-performance coaching team will develop a comprehensive formula for drafting and selecting players to ensure well-balanced and competitive teams. This process will prioritise fairness.

“We made sure everybody is represented and all clubs have an appropriate number of players in each team depending on where they finished in the 2024 season,” Burger assured.

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