Brave Namibia Cause Irish Trouble

It looked like a slaughter waiting to happen on paper, but by half time, I was actually pretty impressed with Namibia. Ireland went in 20-3, sure, but their lowly-ranked opposition had played their hearts out, defended fearlessly, and even looked like they were going to score a try!

The Nambians certainly weren't letting the Irish have their way with the catch and drive manoeuvres, their scrum wasn't too bad and midfield defence seemed to be all over the Irish pair.

With such a critical group, Argentina having put the cat amongst the pidgeons by beating France, Ireland really needed a big score. The pool could come down to points difference, and if they can't put a few decent points over the tournment's bottom team, they could find themselves in third place at the end of the pool games. The final score of Ireland 32 Namibia 17 certainly didn't flatter the men in green. The try scorers were Brian O'Driscoll [right], Andrew Trimble, Simon Easterby [left], and replacement Hooker Jerry Flannery, which secured them a bonus point, but they made heavy weather of it.