Namibia begin South American tour with loss to Argentina XV

Namibia’s on-field road to Rugby World Cup 2023 began on Saturday in Montevideo. The Welwitschias faced the Argentina XV in a non-capped international. It was the second best African test team facing the Argentine next-of-XV.

There was plenty to play for for both teams. Namibia needs to prepare for the upcoming World Cup which may yet include some from the Argentina XV. Indeed, Pumas including Bautista Delguy and Lucio Sordoni both started against Namibia.

The Argentina XV started and finished strongly. In the middle there was a period wherein Namibia scored four tries. The Africans touched down from four attacking lineouts. The move from lineout to maul proved to be potent and asked questions of whether the Argentina XV’s limited preparations were a mistake.

Namibia fought back from a 26-8 half-time deficit to claim the lead during the second half. It gave the Argentina XV a fright from which they recovered to win 34-27.

Bautista Delguy claimed the winning try six minutes from full-time. It came after a penalty from captain Joaquín de la Vega Mendía had gotten the Argentina XV back in front.

Midway through the opening half it appeared as if the Argentina XV were going to cruise to victory. Namibia opened the scoring with an early penalty. The Argentina XV responded with four tries; the last of which was scored by Federico Lavanini in the 25th minute.

The 26-3 lead came with some impressive running rugby. The pick of the tries saw scored by Luciano González. Playing inside center, the Pumas 7’s wizard split the defense well and broke two tackles to score.

Namibia’s comeback was based on two factors: lineout and maul. When Namibia won penalties they kicked for the corner. The boot of Tiaan Swanepoel was ready in kicking the Africans to without five meters of the opposition try zone.

Hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld scored Namibia’s only first-half try. The lineout to maul score was his first of three. His second and third came in the second half. When flanker Wian Conradie scored the Africans were in front.

The Argentina XV regrouped to retake the lead with a penalty before Delguy sealed the result with his try in the final ten minutes. Namibia remain in Montevideo for a further week. They take-on Uruguay next Saturday at the same venue. The Argentina XV travel across the Andes to face Chile in Antofagasta.

 

SCORING

ARGENTINA XV (34)
Try – J de la Vega Mendía (11′); M Bogado (16′), L González (21′); F Lavanini (25′); B Delguy (74′)
Con – J de la Vega Mendía 3/4 (12′, 17′, 26′)
Pen – J de la Vega Mendía 1/1 (69′)

NAMIBIA (27)
Try – T Van Jaarsveld 3 (35′, 49′, 65′); W Conradie (68′)
Con – T Swanepoel 3/4 (50′, 66′)
Pen – T Swanepoel 1/1 (5′)

 

TEAMS

ARGENTINA XV
1 Javier Corvalán, 2 Facundo Bosch, 3 Lucio Sordoni, 4 Lautaro Simes, 5 Federico Lavanini, 6 Rodrigo Fernández Criado, 7 Manuel Bernstein, 8 Joaquín Oviedo, 9 Ignacio Inchauspe, 10 Joaquín de la Vega Mendía (capt.), 11 Iñaki Delguy, 12 Luciano González, 13 Juan Pablo Castro, 14 Bautista Delguy, 15 Martín Bogado

Replacements: 16 Boris Wenger, 17 Santiago Pulella, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Lorenzo Colidio, 20 Eliseo Fourcade, 21 Rafael Iriarte, 22 Julián Hernández, 23 Agustín Segura

NAMIBIA
1 Desiderus Sethie, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 3 Caspar Viviers, 4 Adriaan Ludick, 5 Tjiuee Uanivi, 6 Wian Conradie, 7 Johan Retief, 8 Adriaan Booysen, 9 Helarius Kisting, 10 Tiaan Swanepoel, 11 JC Greyling, 12 Danco Burger, 13 Johan Deysel (capt.), 14 Gerswin Mouton, 15 Divan Roussouw

Replacements: 16 Louis van der Westhuizen, 17 Jason Benade, 18 Shifuka Haitembu, 19 Tian de Klerk, 20 Max Katjijeko, 21 Prince !Gaoseb  22 Damian Stevens, 23 Chad Plato

MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Craig Evans (UK)
Assistant Referees: Damian Schneider (AR); Francisco Gonzalez (UY)