The final of the Rugby Africa Cup, this Sunday evening at the Maurice-David stadium in Aix-en-Provence, conformed to the hierarchy with the single horseman of Namibia against Kenya (36-0), scorer of the Algeria in the previous round (36-33). The Namibian “Welwitschias”, 24th in the world rankings, thus obliterate their ticket for the 2023 World Cup (September 8 – October 21) and are returned to the France pool with New Zealand, Italy and Uruguay. “It’s a great honour, we are very happy to go to the World Cup. We have worked hard to earn this right. We made a few mistakes at the start, but we stuck to our game plan and it worked out well,” defender Divan Rossouw explained after the match.
Namibia, from Bayonne hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld, has always been present at the World Cup since the 1999 edition. Trained by Allister Coetzee, the former coach of South Africa (2016-2018), it will be opposed to the XV of France on September 21 at the Orange Vélodrome in Marseille. In five confrontations, the Blues have always dominated the Namibians. The last duel between the two nations dates back to the 2007 World Cup. It then gave rise to a historic card (the widest to date) of Bernard Laporte’s men with no less than 13 tries scored including 3 for Vincent Clerc and two by Sebastien Chabal (87-10).
“A little sister of South Africa”
Thanks to their victory against Japan (15-20) this Saturday and the defeats of New Zealand against Ireland (12-23) then South Africa against Wales (12-13) , the Blues will reach for the first time, this Monday, the first place in the world ranking of World Rugby. “Namibia is a kind of little sister of the South African team “, explained on July 7 Fabien Galthié, the tricolor coach, referring to the many Springboks from this southern African country, like the pillars Tendai Mtawarira and Brian Mujati or the ex-back passed by Perpignan, Percy Montgomery.
Kenya, which has never participated in a World Cup, has not lost everything. He will have one last chance to qualify via a repechage tournament in November bringing together three other teams: Portugal, as well as the finalist of the play-off “ Americas 2 (Chile or United States), and that of the Asia/Pacific dam (Tonga, South Korea or Hong Kong). The winner of this repechage will join Pool C alongside Wales, Australia, Fiji and Georgia.
The first round of the Blues at the World Cup
September 8, 2023: France – New Zealand
September 14, 2023: France – Uruguay
September 21, 2023: France – Namibia
October 6, 2023: France – Italy