Namibia will take a slender five point advantage into the home leg of their African play-off for a place at Rugby World Cup 2011 in two weeks' time, after beating Tunisia 18-13 in Tunis on Saturday.
The five previous meetings behind these African rivals had all been won the by home side, three of them by the Tunisians so an away win for Namibia would prove a confidence booster ahead of the home leg in Windhoek on 28 November.
In a match dominated by Namibia's forwards, it was their full back Chrysander Botha who literally got off to a flying start in the third minute, gathering an exceptional cross field pass and, with an explosion of pace, left enough space between him and the chasing Tunisians to score under the posts.
Having converted his try, the visitors settled down quickly with a 7-0 lead.
If the home team were rattled by the ease with which Botha seared through their defence, they regrouped quickly under the leadership of Hedi Souid and won a series of penalty kicks which saw the score close to 7-6 midway through the first half.
The teams went in at half time at 10-6, both knowing they had missed opportunities to add to their tally, Tunisia driving forward with speed but unable to cross the line and allowing Namibian to kick a penalty just before the whistle.
Namibia had been dominant in the scrum for much of the first half, their experience and power reflected in their ability to halt Tunisia's progress, leading home coach Danie de Villiers to make a significant change at scrum half, replacing Aziz Kassar with Chahir Aouadi.
Further changes from Tunisia, including the introduction of Mohamed Ali Kochlef, prop Sami Limevi and Aymen Gloulou, led to Tunisia's best spell of the game, which saw last gasp tackles deny them tries on two occasions.
The changes had had the desired effect and the forwards began to provide greater assistance to the backline, who enjoyed creative cohesion forged under the guidance of De Villiers in the Tunisia Sevens team.
However, if Namibia's first try was one of pace and agility, their second was born from power and perseverance as they worked the Tunisia defensive line to force an opening deep in the corner. The conversion was missed, but Namibia looked comfortable at 15-6 midway through the second half.
Tunisia finally saw some reward for their efforts when wing Abbes Kherfani touched down near the corner flag to the jubilation of the small but passionate crowd. Lofti Bensellem, who had missed with two drop goal attempts, kicked the conversion to cut the deficit to 15-13.
Namibia, though, showed their big match experience, having graced the Rugby World Cup stage three times before, and stole a penalty kick in the 77th minute to break their duck on Tunisian soil.
The two sides will come face to face again at the Hage Geingob Stadium in Windhoek in two weeks time, both confident they can win if they play to their relative strengths to take their place alongside South Africa, Wales, Fiji and Samoa in Pool D.
With thanks to the IRB
Comments
ninkynonk says...
Thanks for this report. I find the qualifying games for RWC 2011 extremely interesting.
I really didn't know so many countries were involved. Time to open my eyes.
Posted 13:24 24th November 2009