21 April 2008
Namibia — Namibia crashed out of contention of winning the IRB Rugby Trophy when they were beaten 20-6 by host nation Chile on Saturday.
It was their second successive defeat after they lost 28-26 to Romania on Wednesday and with one group match remaining against wooden-spoonists the Cook Islands, Namibia will now have to fight it out to avoid coming last in the group.
Boosted by some 5 000 vociferous supporters at the Estadio San Carlos in Santiago, Chile produced a superb second-half performance to outmuscle a strong Namibian pack to secure the victory.
In a tight first half dominated by committed defence, Chile edged into an early lead through a penalty by impressive flyhalf Francisco Gonzalez.
The lead, though, was to be short lived, as Namibia, looking to regroup after their opening 28-26 loss to Romania, responded with a penalty of their own through Jacques Nell to level the scores after just eight minutes.
Spurred on by their incredible supporters, Chile were lifted and on the stroke of halftime they registered their opening try, much to the delight of those who packed into the ground, when wing Diego Schachner finished off a wonderful attacking move to send his side in leading 8-3 at the interval.
CHILE TAKE CONTROL If the match was in the balance at halftime, it was a different Chile side that took to the field for the second half.
Encouraged by their first-half try, the hosts pushed for more tries, and although Nell added a second penalty for Namibia, they were rewarded with a second try through inside centre Juan José Ruiz.
Chile took complete control thereafter and battered at the Namibian line for much of the half.
Namibia, to their credit, were resilient and continued to search for a try of their own, but with legs tiring their luck ran out and the hosts sealed the victory with a converted try through lively scrumhalf Max Rochette, much to the satisfaction of the home crowd.
Romania beat the Cook Islands 46-7 in another Pool A match on Saturday and lead the log on 10 points, followed by Chile on nine, Namibia on two and Cook Islands on zero.
Namibia's coach Henk Botha was gracious in defeat and praised Chile on their performance. "We wish to give credit to Chile for a very good performance in a very fast and furious game.
We made a few errors, and lost a few vital lineouts and scrums and found ourselves on the back foot against a very dynamic and determined team. In fairness, we were a bit rattled as the Chilean pack came very strong at us and from now on we will support them in the tournament."
Namibian captain Thomasau Forbes said some costly errors contributed to their defeat.
"We never lost our confidence, though we made these costly errors in the lineout.
It is difficult to believe that we lost, such was the intensity of the contest, but there you are, they won and we wish them the best against Romania next week.
We have to get to grips with our game and try to win the next matches".
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