Namibia lost 36-26 to Uruguay in Lyon on Wednesday at the 2023 World Cup, leaving them in last place in Group A next to France.
For just under an hour, however, the Namibians thought they had secured their first-ever World Cup success. In the very first minute, winger Gerswin Mouton intercepted a pass from Uruguay scrum-half Santiago Arata to score the first try of the game.
Ten minutes later, it was JC Greyling, the other winger from the “Welwitschias”, as the Namibians are known, who finally broke through the South American defence at the end of the line, after several perfectly executed phases of play by his team.
Inferior in the static phases, touch and scrum, Namibia then relied on the mistakes of their over-disciplined opponents, punished by the boot of Tiaan Swanepoel, the African opener, author of two conversions and four penalties in total (23-12, 43rd).
But Uruguay, who had made a series of poor choices throughout the first half, struggling to keep the ball out wide rather than simply taking advantage of the physical superiority of their forwards by playing up close, finally put their game in order and put an end to the Namibian dream.
In the 54th minute, the ‘Teros’ restarted play from their own 22 meters, after the Namibians had lost the ball.
On numerical superiority after prop Johan Coetzee had been sent off for repeated offences, the ‘Teros’ were able to take advantage of their own half-time lead.
On a numerical surplus following the temporary exclusion of prop Johan Coetzee for repeated fouls in the closed scrum, after a few passes down the middle, scrum-half Arata made up for his initial error and outflanked the whole defense to give his team the lead for the first time in the game (26-23).
Overwhelmed by Italy, New Zealand and France, criticized because their captain, Johan Deysel, fractured the jaw of his French counterpart, Antoine Dupont, and weakened by the absence of their third row Johan Retief, infected by a spider bite in his hotel in Aix-les-
Source: Africanews
