Erasmus Shalihaxwe
Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) president Petrie Theron says there is no need to appoint a foreign coach for the national team to qualify for the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
Theron made the remarks on Tuesday during a press conference in Windhoek while giving updates on the Welwitschias’ World Cup qualifying campaign currently underway in Kampala, Uganda.
Namibia failed to secure automatic qualification after a 28–30 loss to Zimbabwe in the Rugby Africa Cup last Saturday.
This marked the first time since 1999 that Namibia has failed to qualify directly for the World Cup.
This Saturday, the Welwitschias will face the United Arab Emirates in Uganda.
The winner will move on to a four-nations repechage tournament in Dubai, scheduled for 8 to 18 November 2025.
Namibia could face Belgium, Brazil, and Canada in that tournament.
Theron said current head coach Jacques Burger and his technical team have enough experience to lead Namibia through qualification.
He said the coaches have played for the national team in international tournaments, including the World Cup, and have also competed professionally abroad.
“We don’t need international coaches; we have got an extremely good coaching staff who have played at multiple World Cups. Some of them have coached at the World Cup level as assistant coaches already. At some stage, you can’t keep on importing international coaches… We need to believe in our own coaches; we need to create a pathway for them. You cannot always keep saying our local coaches are not good enough, especially when they are. We have got coaches who went overseas to expand their experience… so we firmly believe and put full trust in our coaching staff,” Theron said.
He expressed full confidence that Namibia will beat UAE and qualify for the repechage tournament.
NRU vice president Johan Diergaardt, who also spoke at the briefing, said the union is working to strengthen local club rugby to benefit the national team.
“At this stage, one of our weaknesses is club rugby, which we need to strengthen and benefit the national team. Before our leadership, club rugby was neglected. There was no intensity, no real efforts to improve that, and we are now in the process of putting club players in better conditions and club players to get through the pathway of going to the national team,” said Diergaardt.
