The senior national women’s rugby team announced a 25-player squad that will travel to Cape Town, South Africa to compete in the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup from 19 to 25 June 2022.

The Rugby Africa Women Cup will see Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa compete in Group A of the competition.

In an interview with Nampa recently, national women’s team coach Christel Kotze said the team will be touring South Africa and they have selected a squad of 25 members.

“We are going to compete in the Rugby Women Africa Cup and have been put in Pool A. We have been in training for the past three weeks and it’s going well,” said Kotze, who added that the girls are going through the basic paces as well as defensive structures.

The coach added that the team has shown that their tackling ability comes naturally to them and she is happy with how training has gone thus far.

“The girls have adopted well with the training and these games that we are going to compete in are big for women’s rugby in the country. Us being on the rugby circuit shows that the girls have something to look up to every year and things are going to grow big and better for them as competing in South Africa will expose them to the game, as well as allow them to be scouted or given scholarships,” said Kotze.

She added that they have new blood in the squad and it will be interesting to see who will make the final squad seeing as the last time they played 15s rugby was last year.

The squad travelling to South Africa for the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup are: Faizal-lee Tjivava, Mandy Hansen, Elzane-Lee Basson, Lourencia Rooinasie, Candida Del Carmen, Tammy-Lee Roodt, Mandie van Staden, Letisha Maheus, Astrid van Lill, Euodia Bassingthwaighte, Merilees Govender, Leena Shipanga, Victoria Mutilifa, Nicole Philander, Robyn Andrew, Demetria Gertze, Gabriella Jahs, Ellen Garoes, Ndapanda Kakundi, Fiola Vliete, Ivone Kooper, Yanneke Lawrence, Shandre Jantjies, Lydiana Nanamus and Anna-Marie Shikusho.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency