The coach of Namibia’s senior national rugby team, Allister Coetzee, says he is happy with the Welwitschias’ preparations for the upcoming Rugby Africa World Cup qualifiers scheduled for France next month.

Speaking to Nampa from the team’s South African training base in Stellenbosch, Coetzee said the players have displayed tremendous energy and a hunger to learn and prepare well.

“I am really happy with our preparations to date and I think credit goes to the players who have pitched up at every training session with energy, they are like sponges. They are taking in information and learning and get back, whether it is in terms of knowledge or just bringing the energy at training and the intensity,” he said.

Coetzee added that there is a remarkable improvement from last week and he was looking forward to playing Italy A in their second preparatory match on Friday.

“This is week two and we need to be right up there against Italy A, who are stronger and a bigger challenge than Maties. The result will not matter as we are going to matter, how we do within the systems that we put in place, and how we execute those systems,” he said.

He added that their biggest focus will be the first quarter-final match against Burkina Faso in the first match of the World Cup qualifiers with the winner facing either Zimbabwe or Cote d’Ivoire in the semi-final.

Namibia will play Italy A on Friday at City Park in Athlone, Cape Town in the second match of their preparation.

The Welwitschias beat Stellenbosch University 36-19 in a warm-up match on 17 June.

Namibia will participate in the last qualifying round for Rugby World Cup 2023, where the eight best African teams will meet in July in France.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency