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It will be all eyes on Lyon on Wednesday as Namibia face Uruguay in a Pool A fixture. The second best rugby team from Africa take on the second best from South America. It is a contest that both teams highlighted as critical prior to the tournament. Both are in search of their first win of the tournament and Namibia their first in a Rugby World Cup.
The Pool A match will be the first ever meeting between Namibia and Uruguay at a Rugby World Cup. It will be the second of the year; the teams played a test match in Montevideo in August. Uruguay were 26-18 winners.
Win, lose or draw Namibia’s participation at Rugby World Cup 2023 will conclude against Los Teros. Namibia will play their final match of the tournament a day before Samoa and Japan play their third matches. In addition, the match falls before Pool A teams Italy and New Zealand have played their third matches.
Namibia are coached by former South Africa Head Coach Allister Coetzee. His campaign thus far has been three heavy defeats. The Welwitschias fell to a 52-8 defeat to Italy first up. They were then beaten 71-3 by New Zealand and 96-0 by France.
Allister Coetzee has made seven changes from the side that took on France. Four come in the forwards and three in the backs. The team has a new captain; Tjiuee Uanivi takes over from Johan Deysel who was red carded against France. Uanivi has previously captained Namibia against Kenya and Uganda as well as Rugby World Cup 2019 matches against Italy and South Africa.
Deysel is one of four key players out of the match. Fullback Le Roux Malan is missing after suffering a horrific broken foot against New Zealand. Wian Conradie and Divan Rossouw are also injured while Johan Retief misses out after suffering a spider bite.
The line-up contains prop Johan Coetzee and wing Gerswin Mouton as Namibia’s two players to have started in all four of Namibia’s matches at the World Cup. Eight of the players also started against Los Teros in Montevideo last month.
Captain Tjiuee Uanivi started in the second-row last time, his partner Adriaan Ludick retains his spot in the engine room. Wallaby Richard Hardwick is retained at N8. The five other starting forwards are different to that from the Rugby World Cup warm-up fixture.
Desiderus Sethie, Louis van der Westhuizen, and Casper Viviers form the front-row. Tiaan De Klerk joins Ludick in the second-row while Prince Gaoseb will form the loose-forward too alongside Hardwick and Uanivi.
The starting halves see a repeat from Montevideo; Damian Stevens and Tiaan Swanepoel both start. Wingers JC Greyling and Gerswin Mouton are also unchanged as is inside center Danco Burger. Changes come at outside center and fullback with Alcino Izaacs and Clieven Loubser starting. Mouton scored Namibia’s only try thus far in the tournament.
Namibia’s line-up features Major League Rugby players. NOLA Gold’s Damian Stevens will play scrum-half while Utah Warrior Cliven Loubser starts at fullback. Dallas Jackal Adriaan Booysen will be a replacement.
MLR players will also feature for Los Teros. Players involved in MLR 2024 include Manuel Ardao, Felipe Etcheverry and Facundo Gattas. Uruguay had a superb opening half against Italy and a solid game before that against France. Namibia is a vastly different team and Esteban Meneses has made four changes from the side that faced Italy. They are split up front and in the backline.
Diego Arbelo will have his first start of the World Cup at tight head prop. He replaces Ignacio Péculo who misses out on the 23 against Namibia. Carlos Deus starts at N8 in place of Manuel Diana. The latter missing out is a surprise; however, Deus is coming off an excellent season for Peñarol and in the World Cup warm-up matches for Uruguay.
In the backs the changes see Tomás Inciarte replaced by Felipe Arcos Pérez at outside center and Bautista Basso back to play on the wing with veteran Gastón Mieres dropping out. Arcos Pérez will join captain Andrés Vilaseca in the mid-field while Basso will reunite with Baltazar Amaya and Nicolás Freitas in the back-three.
Freitas was a doubt for the match after breaking his nose against Italy. He took an early knock yet played on and was a try-scorer. Amaya has been a revelation for Uruguay at fullback. He scored against France and has made 128 meters with ball in hand thus far in the tournament. He has also beaten nine defenders.
Uruguay’s line-up is very different to the team that played Namibia in August. Seven starters from that day will start against Namibia in Lyon. They are tight head Diego Arbelo, second-rower Manuel Leindekar, flanker Santiago Civetta, N8 Carlos Deus, centers Andrés Vilaseca and Felipe Arcos Pérez and winger Bautista Basso.
Uruguay’s team in August featured Juan Andrés Zuccarino at fly half, Ignacio Facciolo on the wing and Rodrigo Silva at fullback. Zuccarino missed out on a place on the World Cup roster while Facciolo and Silva are yet to play in the tournament.
Uruguay’s replacements see rotation. Second-row and flanker replacements Juan Manuel Rodríguez and Eric Dosantos are looking for their first opportunities to play in the World Cup as is outside back Juan Manuel Alonso.
The first Namibia vs Uruguay fixture took place in Montevideo in 2000 with Los Teros winning 23-12. Game’s two and three were played much later; Uruguay toured Namibia in November 2017. The South Americans won the series 2-0 winning the test matches 52-36, and 39-34. Namibia won 30-28 in 2019 while Uruguay have bragging rights having won the World Cup warm-up fixture.
TEAMS
NAMIBIA
1 Jason Benade, 2 Torsten Van Jaarsveld, 3 Johan Coetzee, 4 Adriaan Ludick, 5 Tiaan De Klerk, 6 Prince Gaoseb, 7 Tjiuee Uanivi (capt.), 8 Richard Hardwick, 9 Damian Stevens, 10 Tiaan Swanepoel, 11 JC Greyling, 12 Danco Burger, 13 Alcino Izaacs, 14 Gerswin Mouton, 15 Cliven Loubser
Replacements: 16 Louis van der Westhuizen, 17 Desiderius Sethie, 18 Haitembu Shifuka, 19 PJ Van Lill, 20 Max Katjijeko, 21 Adriaan Booysen, 22 Jacques Theron, 23 Andre van der Bergh
URUGUAY
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Germán Kessler, 3 Diego Arbelo, 4 Felipe Aliaga, 5 Manuel Leindekar, 6 Manuel Ardao, 7 Santiago Civetta, 8 Carlos Deus, 9 Santiago Arata, 10 Felipe Etcheverry, 11 Nicolás Freitas, 12 Andrés Vilaseca, 13 Felipe Arcos Pérez, 14 Bautista Basso, 15 Baltazar Amaya
Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Facundo Gattas, 18 Reinaldo Piussi, 19 Juan Manuel Rodríguez, 20 Eric Dosantos, 21 Agustín Ormaechea, 22 Felipe Berchesi, 23 Juan Manuel Alonso
RUGBY WORLD CUP 2023 – Namibia vs Uruguay
Date: Wednesday, September 27
Kick-Off: 5:45pm (FR); 12:45pm (UY)
Venue: OL Stadium, Lyon (FR)
Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)
Assistant Referees: Chris Busby (Ireland); Nic Berry (Australia)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
vs
HISTORIC RESULTS
2023-08-05 – Uruguay 26-18 Namibia (Montevideo, UY)
2019-06-09 – Uruguay 28-30 Namibia (Montevideo, UY)
2007-11-25 – Namibia 34-39 Uruguay (Windhoek, NA
2007-11-18 – Namibia 36-52 Uruguay (Windhoek, NA)
2000-09-22 – Uruguay 23-12 Namibia (Montevideo, UY)
Uruguay Wins: 4
Namibia Wins: 1
