Namibia Earn Respect in Loss against New Zealand

Day seven of the Rugby World Cup was the fifth day in terms of games being played. It followed games on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday and like all these previous days London again was involved. The British capital has already hosted five games and will play host to many more. Tomorrow’s one match will mark the first day of the tournament with no games in London.

For Namibia today’s fixture was the first of the tournament while New Zealand were backing-up from facing Argentina at London’s Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Should the All Blacks return to London it would be for a Semi Final. The tournament favorites will now travel to Wales to face Georgia before completing the pool phase against Tonga in Newcastle.

New Zealand’s 58-14 performance against Namibia sees the All Blacks closing in on a Quarter Final against the runners-up of Canada’s group, Pool D. The bonus point victory places New Zealand top of Pool C on nine competition points, five more than Georgia but the scale of the win was notably less than most had predicted.

The game got underway with a continuation of the trend of rolling-mauls with New Zealand driving forward some 30 metres before Namibia stopped the maul and were awarded a scrum. The moral victory, though, was one of a select view as the All Blacks won a penalty from the resulting scrum and after winning the resulting lineout New Zealand opened the scoring with a simple penalty via the boot of Beauden Barrett.

The first  try quickly followed with back-rower Victor Vito on-hand to complete the good work created by left winger Julian Savea. His try near the left corner was converted by Barrett to give New Zealand a 10-0 lead after 7 minutes. Two minutes late New Zealand crossed again with Nehe Milner-Skudder completing good work from Vito who had broken the defensive line. Barrett’s conversion sailed wide making it 15-0.

Namibia, though, made sure it scored next as a well-earned penalty in the breakdown saw  Theuns Kotzè getting the Africans on the board in the 13th minute.  A second chance ten minutes later, after Malakai Feikoa had crossed for New Zealand, made it 22-6.

After a period without scoring the class of the All Blacks shone bright with Barrett scoring the bonus point try with a solo effort in which he broke the defensive line from a set-move and ran 30 metres to dive under the posts. His conversion made it 29-6 before a second try to Milner-Skudder ended the hald with the All Blacks ahead 34-6.

The half time score was comparable to that of South Africa vs Namibia from 2011 when the Springboks led 32-0 before ultimately winning 87-0. It served as a potential benchmark and one Namibia seeked to avoid. Kotzè’s third penalty got their second half under way and fierce tackling followed.

Not be be outdone Julian Savea joined the try scorers list but the noteworthy attitude of Namibia saw it vanish from the memory as a kick to the corner from a penalty led to Johan Deysel going over for an excellent try, getting through four All Black defenders in the process. It underlined Namibia’s progress which has, like others in the World Cup, been aided by increased funding from World Rugby.

Tries from Ben Smith, Savea and Codie Taylor in the final quarter saw New Zealand home comfortably but Namibia’s performance saw the Africans, like Uruguay on Sunday, underlining the ongoing development of rugby worldwide. Is a 24 team World Cup around the corner?

Scorers
New Zealand
Tries: Vito, Milner-Skudder (2), Fekitoa, Barrett, Savea (2), Smith, Taylor
Conversions: Barrett (4), Slade
Penalties: Barrett

Namibia
Try: Deysel
Penalty:  Kotzè (3)

New Zealand
15 Colin Slade, 14 Nehe Milner-Skudder, 13 Malakai Fekitoa, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Victor Vito, 7 Sam Cane (Captain), 6 Liam Messam, 5 Samuel Whitelock, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Charlie Faumuina, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ben Franks

16 Keven Mealamu, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Tony Woodcock, 19 Kieran Read, 20 Richie McCaw, 21 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 22 Ma’a Nonu, 23 Ben Smith

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

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