South Africa speared their way through the Rugby World Cup by thrashing Namibia 87-0 in their last match. If the defending champions manage to acquire the Rugby World Cup again, they will be the first team to win the tournament two times consecutively.
South Africa showed the power of their star studded offence in their match against Namibia where they completely destroyed their defence. A blood bath was witnessed at North Harbour Stadium where the Springboks claimed an 87-nil victory.
All in all the match was a one sided affair. South Africa scored 12 times, which included 8 after the break. Beaten up by other heavyweights in the tournament, the Namibian defence could barely stand in front of the South Africans. Most players were still nursing themselves from their encounters with Fiji and Samoa.
Namibia’s coach Johan Diergaardt explained that lack of ball possession forced players towards fatigue. He explained that players were running all over the place unable to cope with defend against Springboks fiery attacks. In his post match press release Diergaardt told media that rugby cannot be played without a ball and against a team that has you defending for 80 minutes straight. If that is the story, the ending would not be in your favour.
South African coach Peter de Villiers presented a brief statistical assessment in his post match interview. He said that Namibia lost because of 15 penalties and 26 missed tackles. Namibia also lacked team chemistry. Peter de Villiers articulated that Namibia were uncoordinated as a team, while one half of the team attacked the other was resting rather than supporting.
The Springboks were leading by 31-0 at halftime. The scoreboard could have been much higher had the South Africans not missed so many opportunities to score in the first half. SA’s skipper John Smit was critical about their performance. He stated that if South Africa wanted to stay in top flight they needed to make best of every granted opportunity.
Smit admitted there were a couple of smudges in South African tactics and that was what his men will work with coach Peter de Villiers before their next match.
