The RWC2019 Debrief: Namibia

Welcome to the RWC2019 Debriefs. The World Cup is now over and a new 4 year cycle begins, but the first stage of any cycle should be looking back at how things went – what went wrong and what went right – before looking on to how things go for the next cycle to ensure qualification to RWC2023 (if they haven’t automatically qualified) and to make sure they enter that tournament in peak form.

As I continue down the list alphabetically, today I will be looking at Namibia.

RWC2019 Qualification

Namibia qualified as Africa 1 by winning the 2018 Africa Gold Cup, winning all 5 games in the process.

2019 Form

Namibia finished bottom of the Nations Cup with losses to Argentina B and Russia, though they did manage to beat Uruguay. They won all 3 of their warm-up games, however these were not against internationals: facing a Sharks Invitational XV and the Southern Kings twice.

The Debrief

• Pool Stages (4^th in Pool B)
  • Italy 47-22 Namibia
  • South Africa 57-3 Namibia
  • New Zealand 71-9 Namibia
  • Namibia C-C Canada

With 2 of the tournament favourites and another Tier 1 nation in Italy all in this pool, things were never going to be easy for the Welwitschias. They put up a good fight against the Italians and scores a couple of good tries, but they tired as the game went on and it let Italy build up a scoreline that could have been even more damaging had their handling not been better. Moving onto their highly vaunted neighbours, they were unable to deal with the physicality of the Springboks pack and were dominated at the set piece, which made it easy for them to be manipulated by the back line. Despite this – and 2 yellow cards – though, the team again fought hard throughout to stop the scoreline getting too one-sided.

With the All Blacks next up, it was easy to imagine that we would be witnessing a rout from the first minute. However, Namibia shocked everyone by putting in a big performance that held New Zealand to just a 10-9 lead after 30 minutes. Though the All Blacks eventually ran away with the match to score more than in the same fixture in the 2015 tournament, the match statistics showed just how much Namibia had improved, with far better stats for possession and metres made.

Going into the tournament, I imagine that Namibia were targeting their final match against Canada as their best chance of a win. Sadly, the impact of Typhoon Hagibis resulted in the match being cancelled, though earlier results meant that they finished above the North Americans courtesy of points difference.

Looking Ahead

This is a good time for Namibia. While there are some players in their 30s who have likely played their last World Cup, the majority of the squad are young enough to have a good chance of representing their country again in France in 2023, while key players like halfbacks Damian Stevens and Cliven Loubser, who have a combined age of 46. In Johan Deysel, JC Greyling and Johann Tromp, they have some fantastic players who will bring great experience to any side – the kind of star players that a team of Namibia’s level needs.

While Namibia look set to continue pushing for that Africa 1 spot, they are a long way from pulling off a result against Tier 1 opposition. Only a couple of the squad are playing in the top flight European leagues, with the majority of the players part of the Welwitschias Currie Cup squad. If Namibia are to continue improving, they need to have more representation in Super Rugby and other top flight competition. With the lack of success the Southern Kings have been having (and the relative lack of focus on them compared to the Super Rugby franchises), I can’t help but feel that the Welwitschias would find more benefit from competing in the Pro14, though I feel that Georgia (at least) should be ahead of them in the list of possible Pro14 franchises.