The national senior men’s rugby team the Windhoek Draught Welwitschias were on Saturday handed a 08-81 defeat by Airlink Pumas in the inaugural Airlink Cup at the Hage Geingob Stadium here.

Sponsored by an independent regional airline, Airlink, the inaugural Airlink Cup is aimed at strengthening Namibia-South Africa rugby ties.

In its maiden edition the Airlink Cup, saw the Windhoek Draught Welwitschias locking horns with reigning Currie Cup champions, the Airlink Pumas.

The Airlink Cup is envisaged to be an annual contest that will be expanded in the future to cater for the Under 20 Men’s and Open Women’s teams.

On Saturday, the Namibian boys found the going tough as they allowed in 13 tries and eight conversions in one of their heaviest defeats against a South African outfit.

The opening minutes of the match saw a strong Airlink Puma running in five tries in the first half which ended 31-3 as the Namibian team only managed to score a penalty in front of their supporters in that half.

Out of the five tries that were scored by the Pumas only three were converted.

In the second half, the Pumas continued where they ended off in the first half running in three quick tries in the opening 15 minutes of the second half. Out of those three fast tries, two were converted.

Namibia’s only try of the match was scored in the 67th minute which saw their supporters go wild with cheers but they missed the conversion. At this point of the match, the Pumas had extended their lead to 60 points.

For an 81-8 final score the Pumas scored eight more tries in the second half and only managed to convert from five of those conversions.

Namibian team captain Johan Luttig walked away with the forward players of the match award while Sebastian de Klerk of the Airlinks Pumas walked away with the back player of the match award.

Each player received N.dollars 1000 for winning the respective individual trophies from JSB Sports Betting.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency