New Zealand vs Namibia - Preview

Namibia are at the World Cup because they are the strongest rugby nation in Africa besides South Africa, but in truth the gap between the Springboks and rugby elsewhere on the continent is a gargantuan canyon.

About half of the Namibian squad are professional or semi-professional players but many of them are amateur players with full-time jobs outside of rugby. To be at the World Cup, and playing against the number one team on the planet, the All Blacks, is a dream come true for these players, but since they are ranked as the world’s number 20 rugby playing country, they are realistic about their prospects.

“It’s not a game we think we can win,” says former Springbok hero Pieter Rossouw, now assistant coach of Namibia, adding that for many players “this will be the biggest moment of their lives”.

The Namibians have put great effort into their defensive structures and scrummaging and will offer huge heart and maximum effort, but they simply do not have the players to do to New Zealand what Japan did to the Springboks.

For the All Blacks, it’s an opportunity to give game-time to those who didn’t play against Argentina, to look at players vying for back-up selection to the first-choice XV, and to test against live opposition what they’ve practised repeatedly on the training field.

Key players:
Saracens flank Jacques Burger is the standard bearer of Namibian rugby, their one internationally recognised player, a Premiership winner with Saracens respected for his ferocious tenacity and extraordinary workrate. Scrumhalf Eugene Jantjies played along with Burger in all of Namibia’s eight games at RWC 2007 and RWC 2011. For the All Blacks, it’s an important opportunity to impress for hooker Codie Taylor and scrumhalf TJ Perenara, trying to secure big match bench selection, and Nehe Milner-Skudder, wanting to play far more impressively than in his RWC debut on Sunday.

The big match-ups:
Jacques Burger vs New Zealand. Namibia may lose by a wide margin, but any All Black tackling or being tackled or cleaned out by Burger will remember one Namibian opponent for some time to come. Veteran Jaco Engels, former Bulls loosehead but now an amateur player, will still have hard-earned scrummaging acumen to test Charlie Faumuina.