Namibia receive Olympic Committee funding for Sevens rugby event
Having won the 2010 IRB Nations Cup in 15-a-side rugby, Namibia are intent on honing their preparations for the second leg of the HSBC Seven World Series in George, South Africa the Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) has received N$100,000 in financial support from the Namibian National Olympic Committee (NNOC) towards the hosting of the Dune Sevens Rugby Tournament, which will be held at Jan Wilken Stadium in Walvis Bay on 18-20 November.
The Namibians will be using their home tournament to warm up for the second leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series, the Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens in George, while two other countries, South Africa and Kenya, will be fine-tuning ahead of the World Series opener in Dubai on 3-4 December. To add even more southern African flavour to the event, the national team of Botswana will travel to Namibia as well as regional and club sides from Boland, Western Cape and Namibia.
Abner Xoagub, Secretary General of the NNOC, said that since Rugby Sevens had been accepted as an Olympic sport, in October 2009, they had been looking at ways to help the country's national team qualify.
"We had long discussions with rugby on how to assist them and we wanted an ongoing programme on how they plan to qualify and they said they need to host tournaments," Xoagub said.
As a result the NNOC decided to help the national union host the tournament, which will host some of Africa's top talent.
The CEO of the NRU, Sakkie Mouton, said that they wanted the Sevens team to have regular competition in order for them to be able to compete against the best and qualify for the Olympics.
Planning for Olympic qualification
"We have to start planning for the Olympics and therefore have to get our players to specialize as either Sevens players or the 15s players," Mouton said.
"We want the players to play more competitive rugby in Africa and we wanted to host some of these tournaments which they will be competing in," he added.
The coach of the Namibian teams, Ronaldo Pedro, was very confident of his team's chances at the tournament.
"I think that we will end up in the first two places and if we are second it will be to the South African Springboks. That is the only team we are nervous about, but we are also happy that they are bringing their first team and therefore we will have good practice for the upcoming tournament in George which we will also be a part of," Pedro said.
"This time we are a better team than last year's team which won the Plate in the Trustco Sevens tournament," he added.
"Our only concern for the tournament is that we will be missing Attie du Plessis who was called up for the national team that will be in Europe at that time, but we have a good replacement for him," Pedro continued.
The Kenyan team will be coached by national Sevens coach Benjamin Ayimba, a sign that he will use the Dune tournament as a key World Series trial for several younger players, or some who are returning from injury.
Impala's Peter Ocholla return from a long injury lay-off, while Mwamba's Edgar Abere and the Quins duo of Eden Agero and Patrice Agunda get the nod for the trip.
Other members of Kenya's national Sevens squad - notably captain Humphrey Kayange, Collins Injera and Lavin Asego - will travel with Mwamba RFC to compete in the 17th edition of the Makerere Tens in Kampala, Uganda.