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Los Teros registered their first win of Rugby World Cup 2023. Uruguay secured a bonus point win over a defiant Namibia in Lyon. Uruguay’s 36-26 win takes the South Americans to joint third in Pool A alongside New Zealand.
Namibia were smiling quickly. A smooth lineout take from Uruguay malfunctioned in center-field. A planned move saw Gerswin Mouton gathering a Santiago Arata pass intended for Bautista Basso. Mouton ran 63 meters to score untouched under the posts.
Namibia were 7-0 up after under 2 minutes and were leading 14-0 less than 10 minutes later. Their second try again was scored by a winger. In a two-on-one, Basso decided to come off his wing to tackle former Wallaby Richard Hardwick. It saw an unmarked JC Greyling getting the pass and past the defense of Felipe Arcos Pérez to score in a try in his third Rugby World Cup.
Los Teros were rattled but managed to regather with two tries first-half of their own. First, good work from the big men got Uruguay to within meters of the African try zone. Fly half Felipe Etcheverry ran right and provided a try assist to fullback Baltazar Amaya.
Uruguay’s second was all about the big men. In his 64th test match, hooker Germán Kessler threw to Manuel Leindekar for a driving maul. Uruguay drove 8 meters forward with Kessler claiming the try. The Welwitschias fought back to lead 23-12 early on in the second-half. Tiaan Swanepoel, landed four penalties in the match.
Discipline cost Namibia in the match, particularly so in the second-half. With prop Johan Coetzee yellow carded for collapsing a scrum, Los Teros took a scrum penalty to attack right. Quick hands culminated with Etcheverry again finding Amaya who just managed to get the ball down in the left corner.
Man of the match Santiago Arata scored next. The Castres scrum-half gathered a loose ball following a half-break from Carlos Deus. He weaved his way around three defenders to score an even better solo try than that in the win over Fiji at Rugby World Cup 2019.
Felipe Berchesi sealed the win for Uruguay. With good go-forward-ball, the replacement fly half put in a cross-kick for Bautista Basso to score in the right corner. Berchesi converted from wide. Swanepoel and Berchesi exchanged late penalties as Uruguay won by 10 points.
For Namibia the World Cup is over. The Africa 1 qualifiers have completed all four of their pool matches before others, including New Zealand and Italy, have played their third. The bizarre scheduling comes down to World Rugby’s continuation of a 20-team format in four pools of five.
The match between Namibia and Uruguay in Lyon was one to silence criticism over expanding. Indeed, Namibia came to play and had an excellent start against Uruguay. This happened while World Rugby is looking to expand for 2031 or, now more likely for, Australia 2027. A 24-team Rugby World Cup would be welcome news for both Namibia and Uruguay.
Uruguay remain in Lyon for their final match. Los Teros take-on New Zealand on Thursday, October 05. The All Blacks face Italy tomorrow in their third match. It is a must-win match after losing to France first-up and beating Namibia in their other match thus far.
SCORING
URUGUAY (36)
Try – B Amaya 2 (19′, 49′), G Kessler (28′), S Arata (54′), B Basso (66′)
Con – F Etcheverry (29′, 51′, 55′), F Berchesi (67′)
Pen – F Berchesi (74′)
YC – E Dosantos (76′)
NAMIBIA (26)
Try – G Mouton (1′), JC Greyling (11′)
Con – T Swanepoel (2′, 12′)
Pen – T Swanepoel (25′, 35′, 43′, 69′)
YC – J Coetzee (48′), T Uanivi (61′)
RC – D Sethie (63′)
TEAMS
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
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
RUGBY WORLD CUP 2023 – Namibia vs Uruguay
Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)
Assistant Referees: Chris Busby (Ireland); Nic Berry (Australia)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
