2023-09-16 00:03:09
It’s better. Less than a week after the rout against the Blues (27-13) at the opening of the World Cup, the All Blacks, largely reworked after their defeat against France, offered a recital against Namibia (71-3) at the Toulouse Stadium by scoring no less than 11 tries, synonymous with an offensive bonus. Suffice it to say that the three-time world champions, dominating in speed and impact, swept away their opponents.
They now occupy second place in Group A (with 5 points), behind France (8 points), which struggled to win on Thursday evening against the valiant Uruguayans (27-12). Namibia, too limited, did no better than in its previous confrontations against the silver fern players during the 2019 World Cups (71-9, 11 tries) and 2015 (58-14, 9 tries).
In complicated conditions (rain and gusts of wind), New Zealand got off to a flying start, with young Cam Roigard celebrating his first start in the scrum with two tries scored in quick succession at the start of the match. Their partners added four new tries before half-time, allowing them to win the offensive bonus in the 25th minute. In the second half, Ian Foster’s men offered themselves five new tries, Roigard, named man of the match, delivering two assists in the process.
Cam Roigard was the great architect of New Zealand’s victory against Namibia.
“It’s good to win tonight (Friday), especially after last week’s result, losing to France. There are still a few areas where Namibia put us under pressure, like discipline and defense, we gave them a few penalties, and they had chances to lead the game,” said Ardie Savea, third line center and captain of New Zealand, speaking to Sky Sport.
The All Blacks were, however, reduced to 14 men in the second half after the yellow card received by de Groot (72nd), finally transformed into red. Courageous and warmly encouraged by the Toulouse public, the Namibian “Welwitschias”, who take their nickname from a unique plant from the coastal desert, could have scored more points on penalty, but they often preferred to approach the neo-line Zeeland to try to score. Without success. Namibia is still chasing a first victory in the World Cup after 23 defeats in a row now.
There is little chance that the series will be interrupted against France on September 21. In this group A, the Blacks will only play again on September 29 against Italy, before facing Uruguay on October 5.
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