South African rugby union outfit, Windhoek Draught Griquas were crowned winners of the 2022 edition of the Dr Hage Geingob Cup after beating the Windhoek Draught Welwitschias 18-33 here.

The match that saw the national senior rugby team take on Kimberly-based Griquas was played in front of over 4 000 Namibian spectators at the Hage Geingob Stadium in Olympia on Saturday.

Griquas who compete in the annual Currie Cup tournament in South Africa, started the first half on a good note scoring their first try within just five minutes into the match through Luther Obi, and George Whitehead converted.

Six minutes later Obi found himself unmarked once again and scored their second try which Whitehead again converted to extend their lead to 14 points.

The Namibian team registered their first point on the scoreboard in the 16th minute through a penalty by Cliven Loubser.

Loubser scored Namibia’s second penalty in the 21st minute to reduce the gap to just eight points.

With the first half being a bit physical, Griquas saw Mihlali Stamper substituted while Namibia had Alcino Isaacs taken off after picking up early injuries in the 23rd minute.

Griquas’ dominance of the first half once again showed in the 30th minute as Jay Cee Nel scored their third try of the match but Whitehead missed the conversion, standing at 19-6 for Griquas.

Namibia scored their first try of the match in the 38th minute through Adriaan Ludick and Loubser made no mistake with the spot kick as they went into the half-time break trailing by just six points at 13-19 for Griquas.

In the second half Griquas scored an early try in the 42nd minute through Rosko Specman and Whitehead converted, Griquas’ fifth try of the match came from Neil Otto in the 66th minute and Whitehead scored the conversion.

The Namibians meanwhile came out defensively disciplined in the second half and were more determined to overturn the scoreline as they ran in a try in the 49th minute through Wian Conradie, but Loubser missed the conversion.

Despite all the efforts by the Namibian team to put more points on the scoreboard, they failed to capitalise on their second-half dominance as handling errors cost them the match which ended 18-33 in the visitors’ favour.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency