Namibia switch from bruisers to ball players

NAMIBIA have drastically altered their team and tactics for the game against Ireland tomorrow after the harsh lesson knocked into them by Argentina in Gosford this week.

Dave Waterston’s team attempted to knock heads with the Pumas much vaunted pack last Tuesday and aside from the initial ‘getting-to-know-you’ exchanges were blown away by the sheer power of the South Americans up front.

The response has seen two changes in the pack with the more mobile Archie Graham and Wolfie Duvenhage replacing Eben Isaacs and Herman Lintvelt at lock and flanker respectively, to deal with an Irish pack they perceive as more mobile than their tormentors of five days ago.

“The Argentines are renowned for having a very heavy pack,” team manager Robert Alexander explained yesterday.

“We tried our best to go up against it and we couldn’t keep up with it. We suspect that the Irelanders [sic] will not be as heavy as the Argentines, and they are more mobile and the side is picked according to that as well. We have picked players who are more mobile to get to the ball.”

Of course, the whole exercise is of the ‘finger-in-a-dyke’ variety, as coach Waterston admitted yesterday. The Kiwi was a part of the South African coaching team for their victorious World Cup campaign back in 1995 before transferring his services to Tonga in 1999, and now the Namibians.

“Ah look, [South Africa] was champagne coaching,” the ever quotable coach said earlier in the week at the team’s Cronulla training base in south Sydney. “This is flat beer coaching. How do I feel? I feel like the skipper of the Titanic, that’s how I feel.”

The vessel was holed below the waterline before the Namibians ever arrived in Australia, but Waterston is determined to go down fighting. On Wednesday, the Namibians were enjoying a boat trip around Sydney courtesy of their coach’s old friend Adrian Skeggs, a Wallaby from 1983.

Namibia’s World Cup may well have been going down the river but Skeggs offered his considerable expertise on rugby forward play for the next few days anyway, and Waterston readily agreed.

“It’s helped us a lot with the scrummaging and helped us with the mauls and the line-outs and we have improved a lot, I think,” said flanker and captain Sean Furter yesterday. “We will go on Sunday and see if we have done it right.

“We are playing two mobile flankers to try and expose them around the sides and get more ball retention. In this side there are two features you will see.

"The two flankers are both adventurous and we have decided to go for a more mobile look and the two changes should speed up the back-line as we want to play a more mobile game.

"Plus, the guys we have in the front row are good scrummagers and are good in a ruck or maul situation. However, it will be a step up from the last game, definitely.”

The changes haven’t been confined to the forwards. Winger Melrick Sfrica has paid the price for his nervy display on Tuesday and is replaced by Vincent Dreyer, and Ronaldo Pedro takes over from youngster Jurie Booysen at full-back.

Namibia practiced hoisting garryowens to Pedro for a solid hour in training on Tuesday and, as they anticipate a similar tactic from Ireland, felt he wasn’t the man to be looking down that particular barrel.

“That was a big problem for us against Argentina and we are expecting Ireland to use that tactic on us quite a bit and put the pressure on,” admitted Furter. “The game against Argentina, we had a lot of knock-ons and a lot of bad play at the back and that’s why he changed that for this week.

“We also felt we wanted more speed in the back line, and the player who has been chosen can kick with both legs and he’s a good runner with the ball, so obviously he was the best choice.”

Despite the apparent hopelessness of their situation such sentiment is admirable and if Ireland inflict as much punishment on them as Argentina did, it’s likely we may see a repeat of their tactics last week when easy penalties were ignored and quick taps penalties were the order of the day.

“We were so far behind that we decided to play for the crowd,” Furter explained.

“They love rugby, so let’s give them what they want. Kick for the corner. If he doesn’t score, bad luck but that’s not a tactic or any game plan, we just thought at that stage ‘let’s play rugby’. We had nothing to lose.”

NAMIBIA (v Ireland): R. Pedro, D. Mouton, G. Du Preez, C. Powell, V. Dreyer, E. Wessels, H. Husselman; K. Lensing, J. Meyer, N. Du Toit, H. Senekal, A. Graham, S. van der Merwe, W. Duvenhage, S. Furter.