rwc15-Namibia thrash Zimbabwe 80-6

Namibia gave an awesome performance as they thrashed Zimbabwe 80-6 to win the Africa Cup Division 1A trophy on Saturday.

Namibia held a 28-6 lead at the break but the floodgates opened in the second half as they ran in a total of 12 tries to complete an emphatic victory in their final warm-up match before the start of the Rugby World Cup next month.

It was Namibia’s biggest ever victory against Zimbabwe and completely overshadowed their narrow 24-20 victory against the same side in Madagascar last year.

Namibian flanker and captain for the day, Rohan Kitshoff scored three tries and won the man of the match award, while left wing Russel van Wyk and prop forward Johnny Redelinghuys each scored two tries.

The other try scorers were centres JC Greyling and Johan Deysel, eighthman Renaldo Bothma, substitute eighthman PJ van Lill and flanker Tinus du Plessis.

Fly-half Theuns Kotze had a great day with the boot, converting 10 of the tries for a total of 20 points.

Zimbabwe’s only points came via two penalties by fly-half Tichafara Makwanya.

Namibia took a while to break down Zimbabwe’s defence and the visitors in fact opened the scoring through a Makwanya penalty, but it was just a matter of time as Namibia’s forwards started to dominate proceedings up front.

Kitshoff opened their account when he went over from a forward maul on 20 minutes, and Bothma touched down from a pushover try by Namibia’s pack of forwards 12 minutes later.

Namibia’s pack put in an awesome rolling maul of at least 30 metres which led to JC Greyling’s try when he crashed through two tackles to score, while the irrepressible Renaldo Bothma gave Zimbabwe’s defence a torrid time with his storming runs. He nearly scored after breaking through at least three tackles and then created Kitshoff’s second try on the stroke of halftime with another powerful run to the line, with Kitshoff going over from the second phase.

Zimbabwe’s defence fell to pieces in the second half as Namibia ran in eight more tries.

Johan Deysel went over early on after a fine break by Theuns Kotze, while Russel van Wyk followed up a Kotze grubber kick to touch down.

Johnny Redelinghuys went over after another impressive forward maul from a line-out, and PJ van Lill brought up the half century when he rounded off an attack initiated by Kotze.

The Namibian pack was relentless and Kitshoff scored his third try after a 20m forward maul, while Russel van Wyk made the score 66-6 when he rounded off a counter-attack launched by JC Greyling from within Namibia’s own half.

Tinus du Plessis scored a try after a forward maul while Johnny Redelinghuys scored his second after a 50 metre counterattack by Russel van Wyk to make the final score 80-6.

Namibia’s forwards laid the platform for the victory with a powerful display in the scrums and the line-outs while their rolling mauls were very impressive.

Amongst the backs, Kotze stood out with his all-round game while Russel van Wyk, John Deysel and JC Greyling all put in strong performances.

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