Pool A: New Zealand 71-3 NamibiaEthan de Groot red card is only sour note for rampant All Blacks
Death, taxes and Namibia being thrashed by the All Blacks. Namibia have now played 24 World Cup games, and lost every one of them. They are a proud team, amateurs in the large part, working on a shoestring budget and desperate for their first victory. Battered 52-8 by Italy in the first round, now 71-3 by New Zealand, they have to play France next, for goodness sake, before they get to their last game, and the one they’re really targeting: Uruguay. You wonder what sort of shape they are going to be in by that stage.
A handful of these Namibian players, including their captain, Johan Deysel, have now played in three World Cups, and been pitched against the All Blacks in every one of them. It must have seemed like a privilege to share the pitch with them the first time around, but the appeal must be starting to wear a little thin. They have conceded 30 tries against them in three Tests, and scored one themselves.
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