Focus Te Puke grasped the opportunity to be a part of RWC fever by offering to adopt the team. Namibia play 2 pool games in Rotorua in September.

The town will celebrate the occasion with a special day beginning with a Mayoral welcome and a mass haka performed by local school children, followed by a combined churches’ blessing and a town tour.

Focus Te Puke spokesman Mark Boyle says the Namibian team are “fairly off the radar” in terms of high profile teams and it would be great for Te Puke to bring the lower ranked team into the limelight.

“Our approach is simple. We want to show the Te Puke spirit by getting behind Namibia – embracing them into our community and by so doing we hope to add that X Factor for the team when they face their foes on the World Cup paddock in Rotorua,” says Mark.

“We hope the Namibian team and supporters will come to Te Puke, enjoy our hospitality, share our different cultures and by so doing add another voice to promoting New Zealand.

“We also want to capture the imagination of locals and visitors to highlight that Te Puke is a vibrant rural town with a clearly defined identity as the Kiwifruit Capital of the World.”

During the six-week World Cup event the Te Puke business centre will sustain a promotion highlighting Namibia and will dress for the occasion by adorning shop fronts with RWC bunting and RWC and kiwifruit flags will be hoisted in the town centre.

Shop windows will be dressed in a Namibian and kiwifruit theme, the best of which will win $1000. Retailers are being encouraged to invite local schools to help with their themed frontages and the winning shop earns a $200 cash prize for its partnering school.

Retailers will wear Namibian themed clothing and displays of creative art and sculptures will feature in the town with the consistent promotion of Te Puke as the Kiwifruit Capital of the World.

Namibia clinched its place in the New Zealand 2011 World Cup by defeating Tunisia 22-10 in 2009. This victory gave them entry to join World Cup qualifiers South Africa, Wales, Fiji and Samoa in Pool D.

Wearing their country’s colours of blue shirt and blue shorts, the team, nicknamed Welwitschias, is coached by Johan Diergaardt who played for Namibia in the 2003 World Cup. At the age of 34, Diergaardt is the youngest coach at this year’s tournament.

This will be the fourth World Cup for which Namibia have qualified. They played in 1999, 2003 and 2007.

Namibia has been playing international rugby since the early 1900s. As well as competing in the World Cup, Namibia annually competes in the Africa Cup.