Defending champions Windhoek Gymnasium emerged as firm title contenders for this year’s Standard Bank Namibia Secondary School’s Rugby u19 Super League tournament after beating Windhoek Afrikaans Private School 39-13 on Friday.
The win saw Windhoek Gymnasium remaining unbeaten in this year’s competition, after they had earlier beaten Walvis Bay Private High School 31-17, while it maintained their recent dominance over Affies.
The two sides met in last year’s final, with Gymnasium winning a nailbiter 24-23, but Friday’s encounter was much more one-sided with Gymnasium centre Suramie Kambombo the star of the show, scoring a hattrick of tries.
Flyhalf Waldre Kotze opened their account with a penalty, while eighthman Ruan Agenbag barged over from a lineout drive to put them 8-0 ahead.
Affies flyhalf Tromp van der Merwe launched some impressive attacks, before he opened their account with a penalty, but Gymnasium went further ahead after a great try by a flying Kambombo, who cut through the backline to dive over behind the posts.
Van der Merwe reduced the gap with a fine drop goal for Affies, but Gymnasium’s forwards continued to pound away at Affies’ defence and a try by scrumhalf Denver Beukes after breaking blind from a scrum gave them a commanding 20-6 lead at the halftime break.
Kambombo went over for his second try early in the second half after a counter-attack by fullback Janre van Zyl, while a great solo try by captain and centre Stephan Gildenhuys, who cut through the backline to dive over, put Gymnasium in the driving seat with a 34-6 lead early in the second half.
Affies struck back through a try by flanker Walther Otto, but Gymnasium had the final say when Kambombo raced through to gather a kick ahead and dive over for his third try.
Walvis Bay Private School, meanwhile, went to the top of the log after beating Windhoek High School 26-24 at Walvis Bay on Saturday.
In another match over the weekend, Pro Ed Academy beat Moria Private School 40-0 at Outjo.
Walvis Bay Private School now lead the log on 19 points from three matches, followed by Windhoek Gymnasium a point behind on 19 points, but with a game in hand.
Tsumeb Gymnasium are third on 16 points from three matches, and WHS fourth on 15 points from two matches.
The bottom four teams in the competition are Pro-Ed Academy and Affies on 12 points each, Elnatan on 11 and Moria on nine points.
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