Death, taxes and Namibia being battered by the All Blacks. They have played them in three World Cups in a row and gone down 71-9, 58-14, and now 71-3. A handful of their players, including the captain, Johan Deysel, have played in all three losses. It must have felt like such a privilege for them to share a pitch with the All Blacks first time around, and that was exactly what the head coach, Allister Coetzee, called it again this time. But you wonder whether the appeal is starting to wear a little thin. They have now conceded 30 tries to them in 240 minutes of rugby, and scored exactly one in reply.
The match was not without jeopardy, Namibia lost their centre Le Roux Malan to a broken ankle that left his foot dangling off the end of his leg. The injury was so gruesome that the referee, Luke Pearce, took one look at it then had to turn away and catch his breath. And New Zealand lost their prop Ethan de Groot, who was shown a red card for a high tackle on Adriaan Booysen. “It was frustrating,” said the All Blacks coach, Ian Foster, twice. He felt the challenge was more shoulder on shoulder than anything else.
