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Burger leads Namibia in historic clash

It will be the first ever Test match between the the two teams. 

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Namibia's matchday 23 includes ten players with Rugby World Cup experience. Burger, scrumhalf Eugene Jantjies and looseforward Tinus du Plessis will start their third World Cup tournament in the match against the World Champions. 

A Further seven players appeared in the 2011 tournament in New Zealand.

 

Namibia Head Coach Phil Davies said a number of key issues were considered when naming the team. 

 

"We want to start building momentum with the rest of the tournament in mind and for each match we will use a 23-man strategy in order to sustain a 80 minute performance required at this level. 

"We have also looked at the World Cup as a four-match program and we have full confidence in our 31-man squad to reach our goals," said Davies.

Namibia: 15 Johan Tromp, 14 David Philander, 13 JC Greyling, 12 Johan Deysel, 11 Conrad Marais, 10 Theuns Kotzè, 9 Eugene Jantjies, 8 Leneve Damens, 7 Tinus du Plessis, 6 Jacques Burger (captain), 5 Pieter-Jan van Lill, 4 Tjiuee Uanivi, 3 Johannes Coetzee, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Jaco Engels.

Replacements: 16 Louis van der Westhuizen, 17 Casper Viviers, 18 Raoul Larson, 19 Renaldo Bothma, 20 Janco Venter, 21 Rohan Kitshoff, 22 Eneill Buitendag, 23 Chrysander Botha.

Date: Thursday, September 24

Venue: Olympic Park, London

Kick-off: 20.00 (19.00 GMT; 21.00 Namibian time; 06.00 Friday, September 25 NZ time)

Referee: Romain Poite (France)                

Assistant referees: Craig Joubert (South Africa), Mathieu Raynal (France)             

TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)

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