Blue Bulls subdue resolute Welwitschias

An emphatic 47-12 win for the Vodacom Blue Bulls XV over the Windhoek Draught Welwitschias did little to undermine the enthusiasm of a raucous home crowd of well over 7 000 at the Hage Geingob Stadium on Saturday.
Despite the Pretoria franchise’s top selection being committed to the United Rugby Championship, in which they beat the Sharks on Saturday to proceed to the semi-final, their combination of contracted professionals was still expected to beat Namibia’s locally-based amateur side.
The Bulls XV, aided by a heavier pack of forwards, completed this task by scoring seven tries to two.
Three yellow cards handed to the home team by referee Oscar Lambert further complicated their task. With the last move of the first half, lock Le Beau du Preez was pinned for collapsing a Bulls maul, for which the referee awarded a penalty try. Du Preez then spent the first 10 minutes of the second half in the sin bin.
Later, loose forwards Cameron Langenhoven and Oderich Mouton also spent time on the sideline simultaneously as the Welwitschias were reduced to 13 men.
“It was a tough one and the Bulls really came for us. We made some defensive and technical errors, but we could now see where we are at. We can fix those and come back stronger at the World Cup qualifiers,” Welwitschias captain and number eight Prince Gaoseb said afterwards.

Packed stadium
His 23-year-old Bulls counterpart Muller Uys said: “We struggled a bit in the altitude. I was impressed with the Namibian driving mauls which put us under pressure at times and also led to one of their tries. The Welwitschias were also really resolute in the defence on their goal line.
“The entire occasion was really special for us. It’s been a while since we played in front of such a packed stadium. The spirit of the Namibians was awesome and they really made us feel welcome.”
The winning team received the inaugural Officeconomix Goodwill Cup trophy following an eventful day of rugby mainly organised by Officeconomix CEO Paul Oosthuizen and a consortium of other sponsors.

Errors and injuries
As far as the match serving as preparation for Namibia’s upcoming 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign is concerned, not all of the locally based club players really grabbed the opportunity to impress.
Fly half André van der Berg of Wanderers sent his first kick-off directly into touch and later repeated the same error again, which was uncharacteristic of a usually accurate and reliable kicker.
Van der Berg’s replacement Delron Brandt kicked some long touch-finders and landed a good conversion kick at an angle. However, the University of Namibia (Unam) fly half later left the field with a hamstring injury which will most likely keep him out of this coming weekend’s resumption of the Namibia Rugby Union premier league, in which Unam faces an away match at Reho Falcon.
Unam’s captain and centre Alcino Izaacs made two impressive line breaks in the first half and would have likely raised his shares with the national selectors, while his midfield partner Lesley Klim, lock Ruan Ludick and loose forwards !Gaoseb and Mouton also appeared in good form.

Point scorers:
Blue Bulls XV: Tries by flank Jaco Labuschagné (two), scrum half Bernard van der Linde, full back Richard Kriel, lock Marco de Witt, centre Tharquin Manuel and a penalty try. Conversions (five) by flyhalf Juan Moller.
Welwitschias XV: Tries by hooker Obert Nortjé and centre Lesley Klim. One conversion by replacement fly half Delron Brandt.