An injury time try and conversion gave South African Universities a 39-37 victory against a Namibian Welwitschia Invitation team on Saturday.
Namibia rallied strongly in the second half to build up a 31-22 lead, but the South Africans came back to reduce the gap to 37-32.
Normal play was already up when Namibian substitute back TC Losper received the ball and tried to kick for touch. His effort was however stormed down by SA flyhalf Steven Jacobs, who picked up the loose ball and dived over for a try behind the posts. SA scrumhalf Jean Tiedt added the conversion to give them a rather fortunate victory.
Despite the defeat, Namibia gave a strong and committed performance which will do their confidence the world of good ahead of their World Cup qualifying match against Zimbabwe on August 2.
Especially Namibiaâ??s loose forwards of Tinus du Plessis and PJ van Lill were outstanding as they tackled the bigger South Africans into submission.
Namibiaâ??s locks Nico Esterhuyse and Wacca Kazombiaze won their fair share of line out balls, but Namibia struggled in the scrums and were regularly pushed back for metres at a time.
Amongst the backs, new fullback Chrysander Botha made a great debut for the senior side, scoring two great tries and three conversions for a personal tally of 16 points.
Scrumhalf Jurie van Tonder and right wing Luwayne Winckler also scored fine opportunistic tries as they kept the pressure on the South Africans.
Van Tonder puts Namibia ahead
Namibia took an early lead when Van Tonder picked the ball up at a scrum and burst through on the blindside to race about 50m and dive over in the right hand corner.
Botha added a great conversion from touch, but South Africa came back with a penalty by scrumhalf Jean Tiedt.
South Africa took the lead when right wing Morne Jooste broke from within his own 25m and set up a great counter attack that led to Tiedt diving over. Although he missed the conversion SA was now 8-7 ahead.
South Africa camped on Namibiaâ??s tryline and right wing Nico Dumphali finally went over, with Tiedt adding the conversion for a 15-7 lead.
Namibia immediately struck back through a great try by Botha when he joined the backline and outpaced the cover defence to score under the posts. Bothaâ??s conversion made it 15-14 to South Africa Universities.
Namibia regained the lead when right wing Llewellyn Winckler intercepted the ball and started a quick counter attack. He kicked the ball ahead and followed up to dive over in the right hand corner. Botha missed the conversion but Namibia went into the break with a 19-15 lead.
Great try by Botha
Another great try by Chrysander Botha, when he fielded a high ball and launched a quick counter attack, saw Namibia stretching their lead to 24-15, but South Africa came back through a try by flyhalf Steven Jacobs, converted by Tiedt.
Flanker PJ van Lill however put Namibia further ahead with a great try after a driving maul by Namibiaâ??s forwards and when Botha added the conversion they were leading 31-22.
TC Losper added a conversion for a 34-22 lead, but SA Universitiesâ?? substitute centre Cameron Jacobs scored a try, converted by Tiedt to reduce the gap to 34-29.
Another penalty by Tiedt brought them right back at 34-32 down before a Losper penalty put Namibia 37-32 in the lead.
Namibia seemed to have done enough to win the match, but Jacobs had other ideas, and stormed down Losperâ??s clearance to score the winning try in injury time.