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Wales

Namibia

Full Time  
Stadium Taranaki, NEW PLYMOUTH

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Wales 81 Namibia 7

NEW PLYMOUTH, 27 Sept. - As twilight descended on Mount Taranaki on Monday night, so the sun set on Namibia’s Rugby World Cup 2011 campaign, outshone by a young Welsh team that pounced on the Welwitschias' mistakes.

Playing their second match in five days, the exhausted Namibians were unable to contain the Welsh backline, which ran in 10 of their 12 tries in the 81-7 victory.

Nineteen-year-old wing George North touched down twice and in doing so became the youngest player to score a try at a Rugby World Cup.

There was a try hat-trick for 20-year-old centre Scott Williams in his first RWC appearance and fly half Stephen Jones celebrated his record 101^st cap, making him the most -capped played in Welsh rugby, with 15 points from the boot.

Williams and North were the most effective Welsh backs, looking dangerous whenever they found space, which by the second half was almost every time they touched the ball.

By that stage Namibia were exhausted, dropping simple catches and unable to retain their structure in defence, and when full back Lee Byrne slid over in the 77^th minute, he was on the end of a six-man overlap.  

Biggest victory

Wales coach Warren Gatland was satisfied with the result - Wales’s biggest RWC victory, 12 tries and a bonus point - if not the execution.

"We started off with 22 points in 15 minutes, but then the players thought the job was done and went to sleep," he said.

"They got a bollocking at half-time and in the second half I thought our impact off the bench was good and I was happy with the end result."

Namibia missed more tackles (42) than the Welsh made in total (38) but such was the welter of possession in the second half, the Welsh could have scored closer to 100 than 80 points.

Wales punished Namibian mistakes and made the most of their advantage when Namibian prop Raoul Larson was sin-binned, scoring three converted tries in that 10-minute period.

Waiting for the opposition to make mistakes is not a game plan, however, and against a more disciplined team the Welsh could be found wanting in attack.

Some positives

There were some positives in the Namibian performance.

Their set piece held up well, particularly the scrum, and captain Jacques Burger was a constant threat with ball in hand and defending on the edges. The man is simply fitter and faster than anyone else in the Namibia pack.

They also mauled effectively on several occasions, but were let down by handling errors and suspect defence.

They made 11 handling errors and missed 42 of their 138 tackles.

The highlight of the night for the Africans was Heinz Koll’s try in the 53^rd minute.

The huge second row received a popped offload and charged to the line, selling Wales’s full back Lee Byrne a cheeky dummy to score in the corner.

rugbyworldcup.com

*Win/Loss ratio is prior to 19/9/2011