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.
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Senegal once again struck back with a try by their flyhalf, Mamoudou Niang diving over in the right-hand corner to reduce the gap to 24-17, but that was the closest they got as Namibia stepped up a gear.
They brought on several replacements who immediately made their presence felt as lock Adriaan Ludick crashed over for a try converted by Cliven Loubser, and when Armand Combrinck went over from a rolling forward maul, they were suddenly 38-17 ahead. Another replacement, scrumhalf AJ Kearns made a big impact scoring two tries in five minutes–first nipping over after a forward maul, and then cutting through the defence with a blindside attack to dive over in the corner.
Eighthman Adriaan Booysen completed the rout, scoring Namibia’s eighth try, after some fine interplay with Meyer to complete a resounding win.
Namibia will now take on Algeria in the semifinals on Sunday after the north Africans earlier beat the Ivory Coast 41-6.
Zimbabwe are also through to the semis after beating Morocco 43-8 and will meet Kenya, who beat Uganda 32-24.