It’s officially rugby season!
Saturday saw the return of the Namibia Rugby Union's (NRU) first division league.The Erongo conference provided great rugby action as defending champions Sparta 1 took on Dolphins, who haven’t taken part in the competition since 2019, while Sparta 2 took on Etosha Lions who have also been absent from the tournament for more than two years.
The games took place at Tamariskia Sports Stadium in Swakopmund.
In the first game, Sparta 2 took on Etosha Lions, who travelled all the way from Tsumeb.
It was a very tight game but Etosha Lions controlled the game, and were rewarded when Geovanne Rittman scored the first try.
Corne Du Plessis scored two tries while George Turner added two conversions for his team.
Sparta 2 didn’t show any signs of giving up although they were trailing, and got a penalty try in the dying minutes of the game. It ended 27-7 in Etosha Lions' favour.
Gutted
Nelan Farmer, who captains Sparta 2, was gutted by his team's performance.
“We didn’t play well and we got punished for that. We need to go back to the drawing board to see where we can improve to make sure we come back stronger in the next game,” he said.
In the main game, we saw defending champions Sparta lose 12-7 against Dolphins.
After the game, Dolphins captain Sean de Klerk said: “We came into this one as underdogs, we are happy with the win. We felt the pressure. They are the back-to-back defending champions, after all.
"We won, we’re happy. On to the next!”
With the next round of games set to take place towards end of April, there's a lot to be excited for this rugby season.