Wales posted a record-breaking 81-7 thrashing of Namibia yesterday as the skewed World Cup schedule once again made a mockery of the International Rugby Board’s claim it is trying to close the gap at the top of the game.
The win was Wales’ biggest in a World Cup and also set national tournament bests for points scored, tries (12) and winning margin, while 19-year-old winger George North became the youngest scorer of any nationality in a World Cup.
However, while Wales took the plaudits and other Tier 1 nations such as England, Scotland, Ireland and Australia were planning their week’s preparation for their decisive final pool games, Namibia were packing their bags after playing all four games in 17 days.
Photo: AFP
After being thrashed 87-0 by holders South Africa on Thursday, it was hardly surprising to see the largely amateur African side fall apart in the second half against Wales four days later and they paid a heavy price for missing more than 40 tackles.
Lock Heinz Koll gave them something to celebrate when he galloped in for a rare try, but after 15 defeats in as many World Cup matches, they look as far away as ever from being able to mount any sort of realistic challenge to even the Tier 2 nations.
“It was very hard to play so many games in a short period of time and facing Wales four days after the Springboks was tough,” said captain Jacques Burger, who ended the night in hospital with a suspected broken jaw.
Namibia coach Johan Diergaardt said the tournament had been a wonderful experience.
“The short turnaround periods weren’t good for us, but the bottom line is we have to play more games at this level for us to compete,” he said.
Wales, who had eight days to prepare for the match, were only 22-0 up at the break, but with Namibia’s part-timers running on empty they cut loose in the second half.
Center Scott Williams grabbed a hat-trick, North got two, while Aled Brew, Toby Faletau, Gethin Jenkins, Jonathan Davies, Lloyd Williams, Lee Byrne and Alun Wyn Jones also scored. Stephen Jones celebrated becoming his country’s most-capped player on his 101st appearance by kicking 15 points.
“We came here for the win and bonus point, and we got that,” Wales captain Sam Warburton said. “I think we tried too hard and we played in the wrong areas at times, but the game broke down in the second half and we were able to score 12 tries, which could be important for the points difference.”
Wales and Samoa both have 10 points behind South Africa on 14. With the islanders facing the Springboks in their final game, Wales are odds-on to progress after their final game against Fiji.
Their reward as runners-up would be a quarter-final meeting with the winners of Pool B, likely to be Ireland, or possibly Australia.
The action continues with two matches today when Italy take on the US in Nelson needing to win, preferably with a bonus point to stay in the quarter-final hunt, while Canada and Japan face off in Pool C in the match each side has targeted as their best chance of a sole World Cup victory.
Italy were forced to change their lineup for their game after fullback Andrea Masi strained a calf and he is set to be replaced by Luke McLean and they will hope to escape with any further damage ahead of their final pool game against Ireland in Dunedin on Sunday.
Ireland moved south yesterday following their thrashing of Russia on Sunday and said that, despite their surprise win over Australia, the Italy game had always, and still did, hold the key to qualification.
“Nobody is thinking about the draw or anything like that, nobody is looking beyond this game,” Ireland manager Paul McNaughton said. “We were all very pleased to beat Australia, but Italy was the game we had to win.”
While Ireland have a great opportunity to go beyond the quarter-finals for the first time, Scotland are in real danger of failing to get to at least the last eight for the first time after their heartbreaking defeat by Argentina on Sunday.
Yesterday’s post-mortem focused on the “30 seconds of madness” that allowed Puma replacements Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino to score the late try that has left Scotland almost certainly needing to beat England, and by eight points or more, to maintain their proud record of qualification.
“We’ll be confident. We almost beat them in the Six Nations and there’s no bigger stage and no bigger game in a lot of guys’ careers,” flanker John Barclay said.
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