Yours truly has never been the kind of bloke in the habit of one praising mediocrity but one must often swallow your pride and give credit to where is due.
Well, I’m damn sure many sober minded patriotic sport lovers would scorn to own me in a lie if dare conclude our national senior rugby fifteen, the Welwistchias really played some hardegat rugby at the 2019 Rugby World Cup underway in Japan.
Fair enough, we have been eliminated from the marathon global showpiece with a match to spare but as fate would dictate – the particular match of convenience against fellow already eliminated Canada never materialized because of national disaster (Typhoon Hagibis).
Yours truly anxiously waited with bated breath for our final match group match against fellow tier two entrants Canada but sadly, the Canadians were spared a decent hiding by the untimely intervention of visitor Typhoon.
Eish, this was a match perfectly tailored to define Namibia’s overall performance after three consecutive defeats at the hands of formidable opponents Italy, New Zealand and big brother South Africa. Unlike in the past performance that saw the Namibian amateurs labeled the tournament’s whipping boys.
Our boys really played some genuine “hardegat” rugby in their opening three games against world class opponents and must give themselves a pat on the back for their great performance under trying conditions.
Had it not been for the unplanned presence of uninvited visitor brother Typhoon, Namibia would have rewritten the history books and manufacture their first win after 23 failed attempts.
Let me doff my “Korrie” for Corrie for a job well done. Let us not be fooled by the score lines, we came to the show and were no pushovers. Our boys played their lungs out and gifted reigning champions New Zealand a decent run for their money.
We also matched two times World champions South Africa’s Springboks pound for pound – only to be let down by fatigue and inexperience. Hey, lest we forget, these are highly paid international professionals who make their daily living out of the oval ball game.
On the flip side, our rugby team is likely to remain in the shadow of tier one ruby playing nations until such time we change the entire landscape on which the oval ball game gallops. In hindsight, school rugby the backbone of the national team seems to be on the right track but lots till needs to be done.
As long as we keep tapping our best talent from private schools mainly sheltering athletes from affluent parents, Namibia will never be able to unearth her true potential because the composition of the team does not reflect our geographical layout – unfortunately, that’s the sad brutal reality.
As it stands, there’s an urgent need to introduce hard a fast rules that will see sport declared a subject at all national schools across the country.
This can only be achieved through the hopelessly long overdue construction of proper recreational facilities. Athletes will never develop and flourish while exposed to sub-standard training facilities. Perhaps we should take a leaf out of Japan.
Sport codes caught with pants down
With the National Sport Commission (NSC) annual Sport Awards just around the corner, slated for Ondangwa later this month – a chorus of discontent is blurring off keynotes, complaining bitterly about the shoddy manner in which their respective associations choose nominees for potential award winners.
The National Golf Union (NAGU) has submitted their junior team as their preferred candidates notwithstanding the fact that the amateur team won a world championship, in Portugal. This weird nomination brings one to conclude that some of the administrators are ignorant or don’t understand the set criteria for the winners.
HELLO!!! Points are allocated pro rata, a silver medal acquired at a provincial or regional championship will hands you way less points than a gold medal from a world championship. It should be well consumed that, national, provincial, regional and continental achievements will always come off second best to international competitions in the allocation of points.
Incompetent or rather arrogant clueless sport officials are unintentionally robbing athletes of their rightful recognition by failing to nominate them for accolades. I rest my case.