Africa: Namibia Beat Senegal After Late Charge

Africa: Namibia Beat Senegal After Late Charge


Namibia’s hopes of qualifying for the 2027 Rugby World Cup are still alive after they beat Senegal 55-17 in their opening match at the Africa Cup in Kampala yesterday.

It took a while to break Senegal down, and when Namibia held a narrow 24-17 lead with a player in the sin bin midway through the second half, it looked like a big upset was on the cards.

Namibia’s superior fitness and their strength off the bench, however, played a key role as they ran in five tries in the final quarter to clinch a comprehensive win.

Namibia took an early 7-0 lead when lock Johan Retief touched down, with flyhalf Tiaan Swanepoel converting, but they could not convert their early dominance into points while they also struggled in the scrums.

Swanepoel added a penalty and when wing Jurgen Meyer went over after a fine break by Andre van der Berg, they went 17-0 ahead after Swanepoel added a great conversion from the touchline. Namibia seemed to be cruising but were still struggling in the scrums and suffered a setback when veteran prop Aranos Coetzee went off injured.

Senegal opened their account when eighth man Abdelkarim Fofana went over from a lineout with Saibo Sacko adding the conversion, and when their left wing Ousmane Soumah snapped up a loose ball to nip over for an unconverted try, they were right back in the game with a 17-12 deficit.

Namibia were further penalised when lock Oliver Kurz was yellow-carded for foul play, but increased their lead when Le Roux Malan cut through Senegal’s defence to send Andre van den Berg over for a converted try.