Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>The Welwitschias on Saturday suffered a morally sapping 52-8 defeat at the hands of Italy in their first match of the 2023 Rugby World Cup at the Geoffroy-Guchard Stadium in Saint-E\u0301ttienne, France.<\/p>\nIn the match, which was played in blistering heat, Namibia started off brightly and scored the first points of the match via a penalty in the third minute through Tiaan Swanepoel.<\/p>\n
Italy restored parity via a penalty to make it three-all, with six minutes played.<\/p>\n
The Welwitschias were reduced to 14 men in the 10th minute when vice captain Namibia and hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld were sin-binned.<\/p>\n
Italy took advantage of that to score the first try of the match through Lorenzo Cannone in the 11th minute, following a roving maul that caused problems for Namibia throughout the game.<\/p>\n
With the absence of van Torsten, Namibia could not match the Italians at set pieces, as new boy Richard Hardwick took the throw-in during a lineout, launching the ball way over the lineout and into the hands of the Italian backs, allowing Paolo Garbisi to sprint away and score to extend the Italian lead to 17-3.<\/p>\n
Not all was gloom for Namibia during the sin-bin period, as Gerswin Mouton scored a try after receiving a long pass from Swanepoel to catch the Italian defence napping to make it 17-8.<\/p>\n
Swanepoel could have seen Namibia go to halftime with a three-point deficit had his kicking been perfect on the day; however, he missed two penalties to leave the scoreline at 17-8 at halftime.<\/p>\n
The second half was a disaster for Namibia, as the Italians scored four unanswered tries, all of which were converted, and they emerged victorious with a bonus point.<\/p>\n
They were much stronger after the break, and the quality off the bench was all too evident.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the match, Namibia coach Allister Coetzee said while his boys gave it their all, the gap between tier one and tier two rugby-playing nations is evident.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys never gave up; they hung in there. We were up against a tier-one country, and it is always important to have parity at set pieces. The Italians are good at set pieces; we struggled a bit at lineouts and scrums. Towards the end, it ballooned out a bit, but that is the difference in conditioning,\u201d Coetzee said.<\/p>\n
He added that Namibia should have taken their opportunities in the first half and made it difficult for their opponents.<\/p>\n
The former Springbok coach said the loss of his vice captain for 10 minutes saw the Italians score 14 points, but set pieces were Namibia\u2019s undoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boys tried hard; we were good at the kicking game as we put them under pressure every time we kicked. However, at 50 minutes, we faded,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The defeat means Namibia\u2019s wait for a first World Cup win extends to a record 23 games.<\/p>\n
Namibia plays wounded New Zealand, which suffered a 27-13 defeat to the hosts France on Friday evening in the opening match of the tournament at the Stade de France.<\/p>\n
That match is scheduled for Friday 15 September.<\/p>\n
For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maqonda Ndlovu Africa-Press – Namibia. The Welwitschias on Saturday suffered a morally sapping 52-8 defeat at the hands of Italy in their first match of the 2023 Rugby World Cup at the Geoffroy-Guchard Stadium in Saint-E\u0301ttienne, France. In the match, which was played in blistering heat, Namibia started off brightly and scored the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":53400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-53401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\n
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