Namibian and South African teams announced for Thursday.

Teams are on post 2.

There are a few threads that have gone off topic which have leaned towards which team will Wales pick to play Namibia, but I think the south Africa v Namibia match warrants discussion first.

Seeing as Namibia and South Africa are neighbours, and Namibia play in South Africa's Voda Phone Cup, then it seems to be that Namibia will take it as a matter of pride to give South Africa the best match they can. After all how would their players feel about going to South Africa every week for games knowing that they had a repeat of their 142-0 World Cup loss to Australia in the 2003 World Cup?

I don;t pretend to know too much about Namibian rugby, but looking at their World Cup squad and also the teams they have picked in their World Cup matches so far, as well as their IRB Nations Cup games it seems that this is their first choice team:

15 Chrysander Botha
14 Danie Dames
13 Danie van Wyk
12 Piet Van Zyl
11 Llewellyn Winkler
10 Theuns Kotze
9 Eugene Jantjies
8 Pieter-Jan van Lill
7 Jacques Burger (c)
6 Tinus du Plessis
5 Nico Esterhuyse
4 Heinz Koll
3 Raoul Larson
2 Hugo Horn
1 Johannes Redelinghuys


While this is what you might consider their reserve team:

15 Heini Bock
14 McGrath van Wyk
13 David Philander
12 Darryl de la Harpe
11 Conrad Marais
10 Tertius Losper
9 Ryan de la Harpe
8 Jacques Nieuwenhuis (c)
7 Renaud van Neel
6 Rohan Kitshoff
5 Uakazuwaka Kazombiaze
4 Hendrik Franken
3 Marius Visser
2 Bertus O'Callaghan
1 Jané du Toit

So hopefully the strong team will play South Africa, then ideally Namibia will pick the second lot to face Wales. If we do face most of the second team, then surely it would be safe for Wales to pick a reserve team against the Namibia reserves.

South Africa 15 Pat Lambie, 14 Gio Aplon, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Frans Steyn, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Francois Hougaard, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Willem Alberts, 5 Danie Rossouw, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 CJ van der Linde, 2 John Smit (c), 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Chiliboy Ralepelle, 17 Tendai Mtawarira, 18 François Louw, 19 Heinrich Brüssow, 20 Fourie du Preez, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Juan de Jongh.

The Springboks have made five changes to their starting line-up for Thursday's World Cup Pool D match against Southern African neighbours Namibia at North Harbour Stadium.

Wing Gio Aplon, scrum-half Francois Hougaard, utility forward Willem Alberts and tighthead prop CJ van der Linde are all given their first starts of the tournament while Bryan Habana has been recalled from injury to resume in the number eleven jersey.

Four players were unavailable for selection due to injury, while Springbok coach Peter de Villiers opted to bring in fresh legs in the hope of sustaining the team's momentum.

Locks Victor Matfield and Johann Muller, centre Jean de Villiers and fly-half Butch James were not considered for the match.

Scrum-half Fourie du Preez and flanker Heinrich Brüssow both drop to the bench while wings JP Pietersen and Odwa Ndungane and tighthead prop Jannie du Plessis are rested all together.

In one other change on the bench, Chiliboy Ralepelle is included in a match 22 for the first time as he is drafted in for Bismarck du Plessis, who is also rested.




Namibia: 15 Chrysander Botha, 14 Danie Dames, 13 Danie van Wyk, 12 Piet van Zyl, 11 Heine Bock, 10 Theuns Kotze, 9 Eugene Jantjies, 8 Jacques Nieuwenhuis, 7 Jacques Burger (c), 6 Tinus Du Plessis, 5 Nico Esterhuyse, 4 Heinz Koll, 3 Marius Visser, 2 Bertus O'Callaghan, 1 Johnnie Redelinghuys.
Replacements: 16 Hugo Horn, 17 Jane du Toit, 18 Pieter Jan van Lill, 19 Rohan Kitshoff, 20 Ryan de la Harpe, 21 Darryl de la Harpe, 22 Conrad Marais

Namibia coach Johan Diergaardt has made six changes in this line-up to play South Africa in their World Cup Pool D match.

Bertus O'Callaghan has swapped with Hugo Horn at hooker to start for the first time in the tournament following the 49-12 loss to Samoa last week, and tighthead prop Marius Visser will make his first appearance in the World Cup, with Raoul Larson dropping out of the 22.

Tinus du Plessis returns to the blindside flank, moving Jacques Nieuwenhuis back to number eight at the expense of PJ van Lill and restoring the same loose trio that played Fiji in their World Cup opener.

In the only change to the backline, Heine Bock will make his first start in the RWC on the left wing.

At kick-off in North Harbour Stadium, 10 of Namibia's starting line-up will have started in all three Pool D games

Luckily Namibia have pretty much named their first choice team against South Africa so hopefully South Africa can put a few dents in them for us. Wales could either play a worn out first 15, or a weaker second 15 then.

The worst case scenario for us was for Namibia to field their second 15 against South Africa and target the Wales game.

Alyndavies you shouldn't be worried about Namibia.They have one world class player. Most of the others are amateur.

The way you can tell if they are taking a match seriously is whether they play Jacques Burger or not. He is their best player by a long way and their captain.

When he plays he lifts the side. The other Namibians will look to follow his example and this will make them fight harder.

I'm not worried, I'm just worried Gatland will tire us out and not rest the first team ahead of the Fiji game.
Gatland has a habbit of putting reserve sides out against teams he considers weak though and he will probably want to give everyone a game anyway.

The Namibians have 4 days to recover. You have 6. Count yourselves lucky.

You should beat Namibia whoever you put out.

Just pointing out a Namibia team with Jacques Burger in it is a lot stronger than without. He is their talisman player like BOD is to Ireland.

wales are in the same boat as SA, the coaches want to give some players rest, but it is also not just about managing players, it is lso about maintaining momentum. If you make too many changes, your team can lose that cohesion and momentum.

I think you could maintain momentum by selecting an entirely different 15 from the last team, all it really does it give players a 2 week break.