Namibia qualify for World Cup

Namibia beat Tunisia 22-10 in a tense and physical match in Windhoek on Saturday to qualify for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The victory gave Namibia a 40-23 aggregate victory after Namibia won the first leg in Tunisia 18-13. In a tense and physical match in Windhoek, the match was still wide open at halftime with Tunisia holding a narrow 10-9 lead. But the visitors’ discipline let them down as they were continuously penalised for offside and ruck infringements, and Namibian flyhalf Emile Wessels took full advantage with his accurate boot.

In the final minutes the visitors’ frustrations boiled over as players from both sides were involved in a big fight, which resulted in a red card and three yellow cards being issued by referee Marius Joncker.

Tunisia suffered an early setback when their captain and prop Souid Hedi was sin binned for foul play after only three minutes. Emile Wessels succeeded with the resulting penalty to give Namibia a 3-0 lead.

Four minutes later Namibian scrumhalf Eugene Jantjies nearly increased the lead when he broke away from a scrum and sent wing Bradley Langenhoven away on the left wing. When the cover defence caught up, Jantjies gathered from a maul but dotted down just short of the tryline.

Tunisian wing Abbes Kherfani missed with a penalty on 14m but a minute later flyhalf Lotfi Ben Msallem slotted over a drop goal from just outside the 22m line.

Tunisia started attacking more and prop Aouemri Akrem was bundled into touch a metre from the line after a forward drive.

Wessels restored Namiba’s lead with a penalty on 28m, but Tunisia took the lead for the first time with a great try six minutes later. Namibian flanker PJ van Lill went on a fine run, but when he was brought down, Tunisian centre Sabeur Ben Charrada launched an incisive counterattack to pass to left wing Abbes Kherfani who dived over next to the posts. With Ben Msallem adding the conversion, Tunisia went 10-6 ahead.

Wessels succeeded with another penalty from Tunisia’s 10m line on 39m to make the score 10-9 and in injury time of the first half he narrowly missed with another penalty attempt.

Namibia immediately went on the attack in the second half as loose forwards PJ van Lill and Jacques Nieuwenhuis came close to scoring, but Tunisia’s defence held out. Namibia’s incessant pressure resulted in a 5m penalty, but scrumhalf Jantjies missed another great chance when he knocked on going over the line. Tunisia were however penalised for offside and Wessels put Namibia 12-10 ahead with a penalty.

Namibia went further ahead through a great try by eighthman Tinus du Plessis on 61m. Fullback Chrysander Botha launched a counterattack, and the ball spun down the backline to Bradley Langenhoven and Piet van Zyl before Du Plessis was on hand to crash over for the try. Wessels added the conversion to put Namibia 19-10 ahead.

Tunisia were once again reduced to 14 men when prop Mohamed Ali Kochlaf was sin binned, but despite being a man down, they camped on Namibia’s tryline. Tunisia had about six attempts at scoring from a maul repelled before flyhalf Ben Msallem tried a drop goal which went wide of the mark.

Namibia however finished strongly, with loose forwards PJ van Lill and Jacques Burger putting in strong runs, and when Tunisia was penalised for offside, Wessels put over the penalty from in front of the posts.

Tunisia’s frustrations boiled over in the final stages when a player attacked Jacques Burger in an off the ball incident and a free for all developed between all the forwards. After a lengthy delay, referee Joncker red carded Burger for retaliating and gave yellow cards to Namibia’s Wacca Kazombiaze and Tinus Venter and Tunisia’s Sabeur Ben Charrada.

The victory ensured Namibia’s qualification for the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand – the fourth successive time that they have qualified for the World Cup.