Namibia U20 team list against Zimbabwe

Rugby
Andrew Poolman
  • 1 Day Ago 18 April 2025
A big Saturday awaits the ambitious four teams in the Rugby Africa Under-20 Barthés Cup on Saturday.

The Old Hararians Sport Club in Harare, Zimbabwe, will be the venue for the clashes between Tunisia and defending title holders Kenya (12:00), followed by Namibia vs hosts Zimbabwe (15:00).

From the coaches press conference on Friday:

Namibia U20 coach Johan Zaayman: “We feel our preparation was much better than in previous years. We had a good tour in South Africa; we got the squad together for more than a month now, so hopefully we are ready for a good tournament. (Our opponents) have all proven themselves in the last couple of years. Our strategy is to do what we do best; to keep ball possession, to play from there and to defend or all we are worth.”

Zimbabwe U20 coach Shaun de Souza: “(Losing last year’s final against Kenya) was definitely heart-breaking. But that is the nature of the tournament; it’s a very competitive tournament. We did the same in Kenya’s backyard (in 2023) and they came and did it to us. It makes the tournament exciting. We know every team has put in work and they all want the bragging rights.

“We’re excited to play Namibia in the first game. We know it’s gonna be a tough encounter, but we’d rather bit the bullet at the beginning.”

Kenya U20 coach Simon Jawichre: “Our preparations, to tell you in fact, has not been the best. We got the go-ahead quite late in the day, some time in February, to kickstart this. And the process generally is very expansive because you have a big area to pick from. Pretty much we’ve just had two camps of three days each, where the last set of boys are coming from. But we’ve done all we can and I believe the team is mentally prepared for this.”

NAMIBIA U20 (vs Zimbabwe)

1 Gianluca Savoldelli

2 Delano van der Berg

3 Joshua Bester

4 JP Campbell

5 Pieter Luttig

6 McHenry Kambatuku

7 Conor Burmeister

8 Ben Burger (captain)

9 JD Rossouw

10 Maughan Jarman

11 Jurgen Meyer

12 Van der Merwe Tromp

13 Jano Erasmus

14 Alejandro Morkel

15 Alfred “AJ” Vercuil

Bench: 16 Marshall Klein, 17 Tauno Hamukoto, 18 Joshwin Solomon, 19 Walther Otto, 20 Arenzo Izaacs, 21 Schalk “SW” Kuhn, 22 Xavier Mouton, 23 Jaylon Carew.