Senior national men’s rugby team coach, Allister Coetzee, has named the starting 15 team for the semi-final match against Zimbabwe on Wednesday in Aix-en-Provence, France.

The squad was announced via the Namibia Rugby Union’s Facebook page Tuesday morning and saw several changes to the team that played Burkina Faso in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Captain Johan Deysel returns to the team at outside centre (13), replacing Alcino Isaacs, who drops to the bench.

Other changes from the Burkina Faso game sees PJ van Lill coming in at second row (4) in place of Adriaan Ludik, who drops to the bench, while Johan Retif moves to second row (5) as well from open side flanker (7) which he occupied last week.

At blindside flanker (6), Wian Conradie replaces former under-20 captain Prince Gaoseb, who drops to the bench, with Jaco Venter replacing Retif at open side flanker and Adriaan Booysen keeping his place at number eight (8).

Damian Stevens and Cliven Loubser retain their positions at fly-half (9) and scrum-half (10) respectively, while last week’s substitute, Gershwin Mouton comes in at left-wing (11), with Divan Rossouw moving to fullback (15) in place of Lorenzo Louis, who drops to the bench.

Danco Burger retains his inside centre position (12), as does JC Greyling (14) at right wing to complete the starting line-up.

On the substitutes’ bench, Gaoseb and Isaacs are joined by Jano Otto, Louis van der Westhuizen, Jason Benade, Ruan Ludick, Hilarius Kisting and PW Steenkamp.

Namibia defeated Burkina Faso 71-5, while Zimbabwe beat Ivory Coast 38-11 in the other quarterfinal match to set up an intriguing semi-final on Wednesday.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency