Last chance for Namibia 

Namibia take on Samoa in a must-win match in Dubai tonight if they hope to qualify for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia. 

Following their opening round 22-15 defeat to Belgium last Saturday, Namibia will have to win their final two matches against Samoa tonight and Brazil next Tuesday, and hope that other results go their way, to qualify for an eighth successive world cup.

The odds, though, are stacked against them, as Samoa are ranked 17th in the world, compared to Namibia’s 27th ranking, while Namibia have never beaten the South Pacific Islanders.

They have met twice in international matches with Samoa beating Namibia 40-13 in Windhoek in 2003, and then winning 49-12 eight years later at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. 

Samoa also have a proud record at the rugby world cup, having qualified for nine successive tournaments since 1991, while they twice reached the quarterfinals, in 1991 and 1995. 

This year, though, Samoa have struggled and failed to qualify directly when they finished sixth at the Pacific Nations Cup tournament, after losing 29-13 to the United States in Denver last month.

They then entered a two-legged play-off competition against Chile, but after drawing the first leg match 32-32 on 20 September, they lost 31-12 a week later as Chile became the 23rd team to qualify for the world cup. 

Samoa, however, received another chance of qualification as they gained entry to the final world cup qualifier in Dubai, and got off to an impressive start with a 48-10 win against Brazil on Saturday. 

Samoa yesterday announced their team for tonight’s match, which includes numerous players who compete in the Super Rugby competition, as well as former Wallaby prop Scott Sio, who won 74 caps for Australia, before switching allegiances.

Namibia, meanwhile, announced their starting line-up yesterday which sees several changes.

Aranos Coetzee comes in at prop for Haitembu Shikufa, Johan Retief replaces the injured Tiaan de Klerk at lock, Prince !Gaoseb comes in for Wian Conradie at flank; Cliven Loubser replaces Andre van der Berg at flyhalf; JayCee Nel comes in for the injured Danco Burger at centre; and wing Danie van der Merwe comes in for Divan Rossouw, who moves to fullback. 

‘The match of our lives’ – Burger

Namibia’s director of rugby Jacques Burger yesterday said they will have to play the match of their lives if they hope to beat Samoa. 

“Everybody who wants to qualify in this group will have to beat Samoa to go to the World Cup, so we have to go out there and play the match of our lives – we will have to play as if our lives depend on it, which it does,” he said.

“We’ve got to make sure that we use every opportunity, that we stay disciplined and that we bring a level of intensity and physicality that we haven’t done before,” he added. 

“We by no means feel that we are out of this. We have to play with a sense of belief in our abilities, we’ve got some wrongs to right, and I’m excited to see what the boys can do and how we react from the setback against Belgium,” he said. 

Burger said their performance against Belgium was not good enough and that they will have to improve in a lot of areas. 

“Belgium won a lot of turn-overs and targeted the breakdowns, and that was one area that we were not good at. We focussed on that this week, to make sure that we are ready against Samoa. Belgium were also more physical than us and they used their opportunities better so there are a lot of areas that we needed to focus on,” he said. 

“Another area of concern was the fact that we lost 37 tackles, which is way too much for any match, and if you do that at international level you are going to lose nine times es out of ten. That definitely hurt us and I know a lot of the players will take that personally, and we will fix that against Samoa,” he added. 

Burger said they could not afford another slow start like against Belgium when they conceded a try in the first minute and trailed 17-0 after 25 minutes. 

“If you start slow, you’re going to be in trouble, and that’s exactly what happened against Belgium and that’s something that we have to do. We need to make sure that we don’t keep falling into that same trap, because it makes it very hard to come back in the game, so if we start slow against Samoa, it will be tickets for us.

He, however, added that he believed in his team. 

“We badly want to go to the world cup and I feel we have a group that can do that, but we need to deliver on the pitch. There is no team that’s unbeatable in this world and Samoa are no different, but it’s going to take a special effort. It’s going to take a lot of guts. It’s going to take a great performance from all 23 players who must be willing to fight till the very end of the match.”

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.