In his last year at varsity, Namibian rugby international Wian Conradie is determined to go out on a high as the Varsity Cup tournament enters its closing stages next week.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old No 8, who is completing a B Tech in quantity surveying this year, was named the Player that Rocks in UJ’s 30-30 draw with UP-Tuks after scoring a try and excelling in general play.<\/p>\n
However, his attention is now on the team’s final league match against University of Cape Town, which will be a straight shootout between the sides for a spot in the semifinals.<\/p>\n
After failing to close out UP-Tuks when they led 20-7 at halftime, UJ have 23 points with one game to play. UCT are just three points behind them, so whoever wins on Monday should end up in the top four.<\/p>\n
Conradie, who played for Namibia in the 2015 World Cup, said he was enjoying his rugby at UJ.<\/p>\n
“This is my final year so it’s a make or break game on Monday [in Johannesburg] and I am really keen to go out on a high,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We know UCT will be up for the challenge, which is turning out to be a \u2018quarterfinal’, but we are really motivated to win that one and to get through.”<\/p>\n
He said he was happy to get the recognition as the Player that Rocks.<\/p>\n
“I enjoyed Monday’s game, which was quite physical. It’s always a big derby against Tuks and it’s quite testing to play them away from home.<\/p>\n
“Things went our way for most of the game, but we let it slip in the last 10 minutes.”<\/p>\n
Having grown up in Windhoek, where he attended Windhoek High, Conradie said he would be focused on making the Namibian side once the Varsity Cup was completed.<\/p>\n
“Playing in the 2015 World Cup [in England and Wales] was a massive highlight in my career and now we are looking at the 2019 tournament in Japan.<\/p>\n
“Namibia have to go through a qualifying tournament in June and if we make it through there, hopefully I can make the team to play in the next World Cup.”<\/p>\n
Conradie, who stays on campus at UJ, said he was committed to Namibian rugby, having attended a training camp this month.<\/p>\n
“There is another camp in May and if my form stays good, hopefully I’ll have the chance to play in Japan.”<\/p>\n
A player with a physical approach who carries the ball strongly, Conradie said there was always room for improvement in his game.<\/p>\n
“I am working on stepping up my defensive efforts and to get a bit more physical in that area,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’ve had a lot of help from the coaching staff at UJ and I have really enjoyed my rugby here since 2014.<\/p>\n
“I first played in the Varsity Cup squad from the bench in 2015, but have been a regular in the team since 2016. I have learnt a lot in the last three years.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his last year at varsity, Namibian rugby international Wian Conradie is determined to go out on a high as the Varsity Cup tournament enters its closing stages next week. The 23-year-old No 8, who is completing a B Tech in quantity surveying this year, was named the Player that Rocks in UJ’s 30-30 draw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":58746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2230,1733,1977],"class_list":["post-17010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-uj-rugby","tag-university-of-johannesburg","tag-varsity-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}