Elsies River United’s under-19 team embarked on a historical tour to Namibia earlier this month. This was the first time, since the Club was established in 1992, that any team from the Elsies River United went on a tour outside the borders of South Africa. The tour group consisted of 21 members and comprised 17 players and five officials. The 17 players were: Lazlo Henkerman, Revonne Saayman, Alfonzo Moses, Jason Daniels, Edgar Swarts, Selwyn Abrahams, Grant Lesch (vice-captain), Tre-Leigh Jacobs, Kegan Karriem, Grant Fischer (captain), Tashwell Waldeck, Clayton de Klerk, Kurt Dodgen, Chesne Dreyer, Romano Fritz, Brandon Minnaar and Craig Marman. The officials were William Alexander (Director of Rugby), Martin Lesch (Youth Rugby Convenor), David Skippers (coach), Winston Abrahams (manager) and Mike van de Heuvel (tour organiser).
The tour group departed on their Namibian adventure on Monday 27 September 2010. The tour would be highlighted by several pranks. After overnighting at the Kokerboom Motel, in Springbok, on that first night, tour manager “mr A” informed his fellow officials that he was convinced that the place was haunted because: “Daar ‘n klomp geeste my deur die nag uit die slaap uit gehou het. Hulle het aan my deur en by die vensters geklop en as ek daar kom dan is daar niemand nie. Die blerrie plek spook!” Of course the boys swore that each one of them were sound asleep throughout the night when asked about these strange occurrences the following morning. Ja, right! The tourists passed through border control without any glitches, the following day. They arrived at the Bird’s Mansions Hotel, in Keetmanshoop, later that afternoon. The tourists would be based at this hotel for the duration of their stay, in Namibia, travelling to their other destinations, by bus, for the various matches.
The first match of the tour took place, on Wednesday, 29 September 2010, in Mariental, which is about 225 kilometres from Keetmanshoop. The team was hosted by Mariental High’s first XV and struggled in conditions which were alien to them. It was an extremely hot day (36 degrees in the shade!) and the team battled to get into rhythm. At half-time, the hosts were leading 14-0, albeit largely due to some dubious refereeing decisions! Despite this Elsies showed tremendous character and struck back with some enterprising play and soon the scores were level at 14-all. Mariental scored another try but Elsies wasn’t going down without a fight and with two minutes left, in the encounter, the teams were deadlocked at 19-all. Elsies’ great comeback was spoiled by a try by Mariental from the final move of the match, this after the tourists were undone by a tighthead, in the final scrum of the match. For Elsies, Grant Lesch, Tashwell Waldeck and Craig Marman scored tries and Grant Fischer succeeded with two conversions.
The team returned to Keetmanshoop where it was more of the same the following day, when they were hosted by the Keetmanshoop-based PK De Villiers High’s first XV. It was like déjà vu, with more blazing hot conditions and once again the team were trailing 14-0 after a poor start. They fought back bravely and at half-time, they were trailing 14-7. PK De Villiers’ play an enterprising brand of rugby but Elsies held their own, despite the heat. With five minutes left in the match they were behind 28-22 and on the attack close to their opponents’ tryline. However, poor decision-making saw the hosts winning turnover ball and they proceeded to score a runaway try to seal the match 25-22. Elsies’ points came via tries by Tashwell Waldeck (2), Grant Fischer and Brandon Minnaar. Fischer also slotted a conversion. This defeat meant that the tour’s success depended on the final tour match against Jan Mohr High, in Windhoek.
At least there was a break for the players, on the Friday and this day was spent travelling the 550 kilometres from Keetmanshoop to Namibia’s capital city. The night before the match the touring party booked into the Rehoboth Spa Holiday Resort, which is about 90 kilometres from Windhoek. The side was determined to end the tour on a winning note and aiding their effort was the fact that the match kicked off at 11.30am in the morning. This was crucial as it meant that the fixture would not be played in such searing heat as the two previous matches which both started at 3pm, in the afternoon, when the heat was at its worst. Most of Jan Mohr’s team was not available to play and their team would include several under-20 players from the Windhoek-based CATS RFC. This did not deter the Elsies boys who were spurred on by a moving motivational talk on the team bus by Elsies River United’s legendary former first team winger, Eddie Londt, who was also in Windhoek, on holiday. Once again, Elsies came from behind, the only difference being that they managed to win this encounter against arguably their strongest opposition of the tour. After trailing 17-7 at one stage, Elsies fought back and took control of the match and with five minutes left on the clock they were leading 32-17. A consolation try, by the hosts, close to the end meant that Elsies finished the match and the tour with a fine 32-24 victory. Captain Grant Fischer led from the front, scoring two tries and also kicking a penalty and two conversions. However, the hero for the tourists was Tashwell Waldeck who crossed over for a hat-trick of tries. The win ended the tour on a positive note and every player was a great ambassador for their Club and the broader Elsies River community.
After making the long trek back from Windhoek to Keetmanshoop, the team took the long journey back to Cape Town and arrived home on Sunday 3 October 2010. Every player and official of the tour group enjoyed the tour to its fullest and made many new friends in Namibia. Hopefully this pioneering tour will pave the way for more tours of a similar nature for the club in the future.
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