When he discovered the Stadium of Toulouse on the eve of the match against New Zealand (September 15), Namibia's assistant coach Barend Pieterse could not believe his eyes. "I'd like to show you a photo of our stadium in Windhoek [Namibia's capital] to compare with this one. I was just saying to Allister [Coetzee, the head coach] that this must be the most beautiful stadium I've ever seen," he told reporters.
We still do not know what Pieterse will think when he enters the Velodrome in Marseille, an otherwise mythical and impressive stadium packed with exuberant fans, to face the French national team on Thursday, September 21. But his amazement at the smallest stadium in the Rugby World Cup is indicative of the chasm that still separates the Welwitschias from the highest level of rugby.
Of the 33 players selected by the Namibian coaching staff to take part in the competition, only a handful play in a top-level league. These include Bayonne hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld (Top 14), Colomiers center Johan Deysel (Pro D2) and former Australian international Richard Hardwick, who plays for Melbourne Rebels (Super Rugby, the Pacific Rim club competition). Some of them also play in South Africa's first and second divisions.
Nonetheless, the vast majority are semi-professionals or amateurs, sometimes playing at very modest levels, like Casper Viviers, a prop playing in the seventh French division. "Some had to change jobs because they couldn't get a month's leave from their employer [to take part in the World Cup]," Allister Coetzee revealed before his squad arrived for the competition.
The challenges are all the greater given that the players are unable to hone their skills in a top-level domestic league. The only Namibian club to play in the second division of the South African league had to throw in the towel this year for lack of funds. "Namibia, with its 2.5 million inhabitants and vast territory, is the second least densely populated country in the world. Because of the distances involved, it's very complicated to set up a permanent championship," said Kevin Veyssière, author of Planète Rugby: 50 Questions Géopolitiques ("Planet Rugby: 50 Geopolitical Issues").
"In the North, it can take five hours to get to a training ground. On the coast, four hours and in the South, it's even further: seven hours! It's always a sacrifice for the players," said Coetzee. Van Jaarsveld agreed: "The guys come on Thursdays. They train on Thursday and Friday, play a match on Saturday and then do something else."
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