Ahead of the final round of matches in the IRB Nations Cup, Chris Thau meets two of the men who make title-chasers Namibia tick, captain Jacques Burger and scrum half Eugene Jantjies.

Only ten days ago, very few pundits would have put their money on Namibia having a very decent chance of winning the IRB Nations Cup. With previous winners Scotland A and Argentina Jaguars among the participants, this tournament was simply designed to provide the African team with a few useful matches to help them gel ahead of the big challenges ahead, in particular the Rugby World Cup next year

This was not, however, the view of two members of the squad, captain Jacques Burger and scrum half Eugene Jantjies, who echo the intensity of belief of their coach Johan Diertgaartd.

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From the start, both Burger and Jantjies thought that Namibia had a good chance of winning the tournament. For different reasons, the two men are the main cogs in the Namibian engine, Burger the battle-hardened Saracen open-side leading from the front and the slick and elusive Jantjies orchestrating the Namibian back division.

For Burger, the fiery 27-year old skipper, there had never been any doubt that Namibia had entered the tournament in order to win it.

"This is why we play. Otherwise we would not be here. However, once we won the first match we knew that we could win it. There is the difference between wanting it and knowing it and this is what happened after the match against Romania, the first time we beat them," Burger said.

"That's what gave us the strength to withstand the waves of Scottish attacks in the last couple of minutes, when they kept coming at us time and again. It was incredibly difficult but our belief and a bit of luck saw us through. Every time the game stopped I gathered the guys around me. I wanted to see their eyes, to understand whether they had inside them that desire to go the extra mile.

"I do not seem myself as your archetypal captain. I would rather do things than talk. I like to lead from the front and set the standard through my work ethic. You can have all the talent in the world but if you don't work hard enough you will never get what you want. This is where the difference is made, basically wanting it a bit more than your opponent. When we pray before the game we never pray to win. We thank God for giving us the talent and pray that we will leave the field unscathed at the end."

New brand of rugby

For 25-year old Western Suburbs scrum half Jantjies, winning in Bucharest is part of a process that commenced last year with the appointment of Johan Diertgaartd as Head Coach of Namibia.

"The most important thing was that we started playing in the Vodacom Cup I guess, against very strong opposition. We played this year seven matches and the team improved in every game. This coincided with a change in our playing style. Johan believes in 15-man rugby and under his guidance our playing style has changed gradually from the forward-oriented game of his predecessor John Williams.

"Interestingly, our last Vodacom match was against the Falcons, coached by Williams, and we beat them 66-36. That match gave us a great deal of confidence in our ability to play an expansive game."

Jantjies, who played for the Romanian club Farul Constanta before the 2007 Rugby World Cup, has worked incredibly hard in training this season and all that has paid off in spectacular fashion.

"His game has improved in leaps and bounds since last year and I am pretty sure that sooner rather than later he will snap up a top professional contract. He is the man who makes our exciting back division tick," observed Burger. And the admiration is mutual, Jantjies describing Burger not only as the best captain he has played with, but probably the best player.

"Jacques is such a winner. He is so unassuming and lets his rugby do the talking. He is an example for all of us and we follow his lead. We had never won a game in an IRB tournament before, let alone a competition. There was a seriously charged atmosphere in the dressing room after the Romanian game. Some were screaming, some shouting, some sat in a corner crying. It was fantastic. It will be even crazier if we win on Sunday."