Deduction still leaves NRU log positions unchanged

Club rugby
The league resumes after an unintended off-weekend.
Andrew Poolman
  • 4 Days Ago 28 March 2025
The next meeting – always eagerly awaited – between last year’s finalists in the Namibia Rugby Union (NRU)’s premier league happens on Saturday, with FNB Wanderers ready for their first home match of the season against FNB University of Namibia.

The league resumes after an unintended off-weekend, as the Union announced last Wednesday that all scheduled matches would be postponed due to the forecasts of heavy rainy weather over most of Namibia.

Two weekends ago, Wanderers made their intentions clear as day with a powerful and efficient 61-23 domination away to FNB Reho Falcon. On the same day, Unam got a shock loss by 22-24 in Khomasdal against FNB Western Suburbs.

Since then, NRU league administrator William Steenkamp has docked Reho Falcon and Western Suburbs’ premier and reserve league teams three log points each, after the two clubs missed the deadline for the submission of their player registrations.

The deduction however does not change the log positions of any of the teams after one match each, which now stand at: FNB Kudus (6), Wanderers (6), FNB Grootfontein (5), Suburbs (1), Trustco United (1), Unam (1), Rehoboth (0), Dolphin (0), Falcon (-3).

Still, with the 2025 league contested over just a single round, three log points could make quite a difference as another close race for semi-final positions is expected.

The unavailability of players in contention for Namibia's upcoming Rugby Africa U20 Barthes Cup tour to Zimbabwe will be a factor in team selections this week.



NTV’s broadcast match

Two ambitious contenders will lock horns at Suburbs Park in Khomasdal on Saturday, as Suburbs awaits their visitors from Grootfontein.

The northern team kicked off with a 24-23 win at United, overcoming a late fightback by the Philistines. United led 13-5 at halftime, but Grootfontein scored four tries against two.

Captain Wikus Jacobs’ Grootfontein squad was not yet announced yesterday, while Suburbs, under captaincy of busy nr 8 Dhale Cloete, has added tighthead prop Gerhard Opperman, who makes a comeback after two test appearances against Kenya and Zimbabwe in November 2022.

The addition of strong ball-carrying loose-forward Tjingairi Katjivi also significantly boosts the home team’s bench.

Suburbs’ new head coach Jood Opperman and his assistant Justin Nel will be looking to make a statement to supporters of the green and white, after they did not reach the semi-final in 2024.

The Khomasdal match will be brought to viewers live by our production team on the NTV channel, as well as on https://oneuptwo.com/

FNB Western Suburbs (vs FNB Grootfontein): 15 Dwayne van Zyl, 14 Gerhardt Vaino, 13 Morgan Esterhuizen, 12 Dylan Izaaks, 11 Danielle Coetzee, 10 Nazume Swartz, 9 Bronwon Willemse, 8 Dhale Cloete (captain), 7 Delano van Wyk, 6 Ethan Beukes, 5 Sebastian Kameya, 4 Billa Kaverua, 3 Gerhard Opperman, 2 Jonathan Goliath, 1 Upahee Muhuura.

Bench: Vernon Diergaardt, Simon Gosscky, Howard Gawachab, Tjingairi Katjivi, Jayden Bussel, Digo Ashipala, Daryll Vries, Doctor Andreas.

• Fixtures, results, log standings and news at www.fnbrugby.my.na/