adminMbachi Mutukula-Maregere Sports Reporter
THE Sables hopes of winning their first match at the Windhoek Draught Tri-Nations rugby series were unsuccessful after suffering a 35-26 defeat at the hands of hosts Namibia on Friday evening.
The Hage Geingob Stadium in Windhoek was entertained by both teams whose players exchanged tries throughout the game.
The thrilling match saw the Sables taking a 17-13 lead at half-time and were always within striking distance until the final minutes of the game when Namibia scored their fifth try to seal their victory.
Zimbabwe winger Gardner Nechironga and centre Sean Moan scored tries while flyhalf Lenience Tambwira added 16 points with his boot.
Namibia opened the scoring when right wing Sergio de la Harpe was put over in the corner but Zimbabwe struck back with two quick backline tries by Nechironga and Moan.
Tambwira’s penalty kick was an advantage to the Sables and they took a 17-5 lead midway through the first half.
Sables team manager Losson Mtongwiza said they were not following their game plan well and that led to their defeat.
“We did not follow our game plan correctly and so we are hoping that will do well (in the next match) against Kenya (tomorrow).
“We are working on improving and correcting the few mistakes that we made in our first game because we were doing very well in their first half,” said Mtongwiza.
But the hosts gave no chance to the Sables as they quickly struck back with a try by left wing Heinrich Smit who jinked his way past several defenders to dive over in the corner, and although flyhalf Theuns Kotze missed the conversion, he added a penalty to reduce the gap to 17-13 at half-time.
The second half saw both teams coming back with a lot of pressure and at one point the scoreboard read 20-20.
The Sables nearly regained the lead after a fine run by flanker Fortune Chipendo but Namibian flanker Rohan Kitshoff brought off a try-saving tackle and Namibia were soon on the attack again with hooker Rathony Becker diving into touch on Zimbabwe’s tryline.
Online Reporter