Namibia scored three tries in a Rugby World Cup game for the first time, but their wait for a maiden victory at the tournament goes on after losing 35-21 to Tonga in an entertaining Pool C match on Tuesday.
Lively winger Telusa Veainu and roaming flanker Jack Ram scored two tries each for Tonga, who ran in five in total as they bounced back from a 17-10 loss to Georgia in their opening pool game.
However, Namibia, whose team consists of many amateur players, held their own, with captain Jacques Burger scoring two second-half tries from the base of driving mauls to push them past their previous best single-match haul of two tries.
Photo: Reuters
Late pressure almost brought them a first-ever bonus point at a World Cup, but Tonga held firm at another maul as Burger eyed up a hat-trick of tries. The defeat took Namibia’s tournament-record run of consecutive losses to 17.
“We are growing slowly, but we haven’t got a lot of time left here,” Burger said.
Watched by countryman and former sprint star Frankie Fredericks, Namibia could not handle Tonga in the scrum and missed too many tackles, but were threatening in the loose as Sandy Park — the southern-most venue at the World Cup — was treated to a fast-and-loose contest.
“We didn’t play with our brain and let them back in the game,” said Tonga No. 8 Viliami Ma’afu, one of the team’s two cocaptains for the match. “We showcased our skills, but made a lot of mistakes.”
Tonga got caught up in an arm-wrestling match against Georgia, but gave the ball some air 10 days on, and in Veainu, they had the most dangerous runner on the field.
The former New Zealand under-20 international notched the first points by carving through a gap on halfway, slaloming past two Namibia players and shrugging through a tackle to ground on the line.
Veainu dived spectacularly for a one-handed finish in the right corner in stoppage-time that was ruled out, because his other hand was in touch, and was instrumental in the 45th-minute bonus-point try scored by Ram after a counterattacking run from deep.
Veainu then garnished his performance with a second try — and Tonga’s fifth — from Ram’s miss-pass.
Not a bad display from a player who discovered he was starting only on the morning of the match after a hamstring injury struck down Fetu’u Vainikolo.
Latiume Fosita was the other try-scorer for Tonga, who scored their highest amount of points in a single World Cup game — beating 31 from a 2011 match against Japan.
Johan Tromp’s try from a smart offload from lock Tjiuee Uanivi was all Namibia had to show from the first half, but they fed off Tonga’s mistakes and Burger’s unremitting work rate in the second half.
Fredericks waved the Namibian flag proudly after Burger’s second try, in the 67th, that made the score 32-21.
Kurt Morath came off the bench, took over kicking duties from the mostly off-target Vungakoto Lilo, and booted a penalty in the 74th that pushed Tonga too far clear. It also made him Tonga’s all-time leading scorer.
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