Welwitschias give Leopards great scare

The Windhoek Draught Welwitschias produced one of their best displays in the Currie Cup series despite eventually going down 42-54 to South Africa’s Leopards at the Hage Geingob Stadium on Saturday.
While Leopards had taken just eight minutes to get their first try and led 19-0 after about 20 minutes, the home side made a great comeback which was started by a combination of fast passing that led to right winger Phillip Nashikaku scoring a try.
That try was converted by fly half Eugene Jantjies with the Namibian team then adding two quick tries through Leneve Damens and Gino Wilson.
Jantjies converted both tries to give the Welwitschias a 21-19 lead.
But the Leopards again scored two converted tries to take a 21-33 lead into halftime. With the Welwitschias’ scrum half; Cameron Klassen sin binned just prior to the halftime break, the Leopard took advantage of that by scoring another converted try after the restart for a 21-40 score line.
But the home side again staged a fight back, with full back Chrysander Botha using his ample speed to get past the Leopards defense for a 28-40 score.
The Welwitschias were within five points of the Leopards shortly thereafter as second half replacement centre, Lesley Klim stormed his way to a try, which Jantjies again converted.
The visitors, though, again upped their tempo with Namibia’s Johan Deysel, who was captaining Leopards, scoring two successive tries to complete a hat-trick for a 35-54 score.
Klim would have the last say as he managed to breach the Leopards’ defense in the dying minutes with Jantjies converting for the final score of 42-54.
The Welwitschias’ open side flanker Rohan Kitshoff was announced as the man of the match.

Welwitschias points scorers:
Tries: Phillip Nashikaku, Gino Wilson, Leneve Damens, Chrysander Botha, Lesley Klim (2)
Conversions: Eugene Jantjies