Namibia to go down fighting

Namibia will go down fighting when they meet Wales in their final Pool D match at Stadium Taranaki on Monday.

The Welwitschias have lost all three matches at Rugby World Cup 2011, the latest being an 87-0 hammering by the Springboks on Thursday.

But captain and flanker Jacques Burger is adamant they will play attacking rugby against Wales.

“We’re going out to try to win,” he said. “We don’t want to play a slow game.

“Even if it sounds impossible, we have to go out and try to win. We have to play rugby like a winning side.”

That means the rugged Namibians will try to keep the ball in hand, win possession at the breakdown and dominate the set pieces, things they struggled to do against the Springboks.

They will also need to eliminate handling errors, something Burger admits is nearly impossible for a team of amateurs and overseas-based professionals.

“There’s going to be errors, as long as there’s no ‘effort errors’,” he said.

“As long as you can see guys working really hard and you can see they’re giving it their absolute best. We’re going to knock on, we’re going to miss tackles, but we can’t just stop working hard.”

Three changes

The Namibians’ ambition to play attacking rugby is evidenced on the team sheet, with coach Johan Diergaardt making three changes from the team that lost to South Africa.

Hugo Horn and Jané Du Toit return in the front row, while the outside backs are reshuffled to make room for Darryl De La Harpe at inside centre.

Wing Heine Bock is omitted from the 22-man squad.

“Nobody is injured. That is the strongest team available,” Diergaardt said.

“We need to concentrate for 80 minutes. We cannot play just for 60 minutes and allow seven tries in the last 20 minutes (as against South Africa).

“And you can’t play against any of these teams with a lack of concentration for even a second.”

But the Namibians can look forward to some individual milestones against Wales.
Horn will play his 10th Rugby World Cup match, a national record, while fly half Theuns Kotze needs just one more point to move past Lean Van Dyk’s tournament record of 22.