Full time: New Zealand 58-14 Namibia
Both sides will be happy enough with their performances in that game, although there is plenty of room for improvement for both in the coming battles. New Zealand never really went into top gear and were sloppy at times, while Namibia certainly didn’t come anywhere near disgracing themselves, but will still identify certain set plays and missed tackles where they should have done better.
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Full time: New Zealand 58-14 Namibia
79 min: New Zealand attack down the middle of the pitch and their hooker Codie Taylor takes a pass inside Nehen Milner-Skudder to score another try in the corner for New Zealand, after the winger had taken a great chip to the touchline from Beauden Barrett. The out-half slots over to make it 58-14.
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77 min: With three minutes to go on the clock, Namibia are defending reasonably stoutly ion the face of wave after wave of All Black attacks. They must be exhausted, but New Zealand can’t break their line. New Zealand winger Nehe Milner-Skudder has just been announced as the man of the match.
New Zealand try! New Zealand 51-14 Namibia
75 min: New Z~ealand win a penalty for a Ronaldo Bothma infringement, going into a ruck leading with his arm. The All Blacks kick for the corner and Julian Savea dives over for his second try of the night. Or does he? The ref sends this one upstairs to enquire if, as he suspects, Savea is guilty of double-movement. After more faff, the try is allowed and Barrett misses another conversion.
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73 min: Namibia have a scrum just under their own postsand eneill Buittendag kicks clear towards the right touchline. New Zealand take possession and advance towards the 22.
72 min: TV ref George Ayoub is called on to award or deny New Zealand a try after lock forward Luke Romano goes over with a pick-and-drive. Did he ground the ball? Was there a knock-on in the ruck before Romano picked up the ball? These are the questions referee Ayoub must answer. “Accidental offside is the verdict,” as the ball bounced forward into the hands of a New Zealand player in an offside position. No try.
70 min: “I think they’ll be a little disappointed because I think they’ve got more in them,” says ITV co-commentator Geordan Murphy of New Zealand, who he says have played well within themselves, but have been very sloppy in the breakdown.
69 min: Namibia are back up to 15 players as Jaco Engels returns from his spell on the naughty step.
67 min: Julian Savea goes a-rampaging down the3 touchline, but is taken out by a good double-tackle. Line-out for the Namibians on the halfway line, which they win before booting the ball into New Zealand territory. There’s another unforced error from New Zealand, as Savea fails to catch the ball cleanly.
66 min: More substitutions: Wyatt Crockett replaces Charlie Faumuina in the New Zealand front row, while Richie McCaw comes on in place of Sam Kane. For Namibia, Pieter- Jan van Lill makes way for Rohan Kitshoff, while the magnificently hard Jacques Burger is also replaced.
New Zealand try! New Zealand 46-14 Namibia
62 min: Having failed to score in one corner, New Zealand patiently play through the phases, work their way across the field and create an overlap from which Ben Smith flops gratefully over the line. Back on kicking duties, Beauden Barrett misses his third place-kick of the evening.
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59 min: The sub Casper Viviers immediately takes a blow to the head and is ordered off the field, which means Johannes Coetzee comes back on. The match officials seem very confused and unsure of what’s going on. They’re not the only ones.
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58 min: More changes: Ma’a Nonu replaces Sonny Bill Williams in the New Zealand midfield, while Namibia winger David Philander makes way for Casper Viviers, who comes on to replace the sin-binned Jaco Engels.
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56 min: Namibia prop Jaco Engels gets sin-binned for, I think, two separate offences: going off his feet and killing the ball. He’ll have 10 minutes to think about what he’s done.
53 min: Both sides are ringing the changes, having brought on severeral subs each in recent minutes. Raoul Larson and Renaldo Botha are on for Namibia tight-head prop Johannes Coetzee and full-back Johan Tromp. For New Zealand, Sam Whitelock goes off and is replaced by Kieran Read, while Colin Slade is replaced by Ben Smith.
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NAMIBIA TRY!!! New Zealand 41-14 Namibia
50 min: A wonderful set play from Namiobia, who peel off the back of their own line-out line-out, work their way across the field for Johan Deysal to show great strength to power his way over the line for a try against the world champions. That all came from an attacking line-out, which Jacques Burger opted for instead of kicking for goal, prompting roars of appreciation from the crowd and much laughter from his own coach. Sadly for Namibia, Kotze misses the conversion.
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New Zealand try! New Zealand 41-9 Namibia
Julian Savea evades the attentions of three Namibians to crash over under the posts, but has to wait to see if the TV match official decides whether opr not he grounded the ball. He did, just about on the chalk dust and Colin Slade adds the extra two points.
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Namibia penalty! New Zealand 34-9 Namibia
44 min: New Zealand’s Beauden Barrett fails to release in the tackle and Namibia win a penalty, from which Kotze snaffles another three points for his team.
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41 min: New Zealand win a scrum after a knock on from Namibia hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld. Unaware of his colleague’s indiscretion, Jacque Burger had delighted Namibian fans with a lung-busting effort to beat two opponents to the loose ball, only for referee Poite to bring play back.
New Zealand get the second half under way
They lead 34-6 and Colin Slade has, as expected, gone in to play at out-half after playing full-back for the first 40 minutes. Beauden Barrett is now playing at full-back.
I thought it was forward. It At least warranted a check on TMO given that everything else has been checked. https://t.co/ReOYioEkL5
— Michael Lynagh (@LynaghMichael) September 24, 2015
New Zealand 34-6 Namibia: the stats
Territory: New Zealand 75%-25% Namibia
Possession: New Zealand 74%-26% Namibia
Metres made: New Zealand 270-20 Namibia
Clean Breaks New Zealand 6-Namibia 0
Offloads: New Zealand 6-1 Namibia
Tackles made: New Zealand 13-53 Namibia
Tackles missed: New Zealand 0-16 Namibia
Remarkably, ITV have just revealed that not a single New Zealand player from Nos10 to 15 has had to make a tackle so far in this match.
Half-time: New Zealand 34-6 Namibia
New Zealand go in at the interval with a healthy lead, but it’s probably fair to say that neither they nor Namibia will be too happy with their performances in that first half. Despite all their dominance, New Zealand have been less than clinical, while Namibia will be displeased by the number of tackles they’ve missed, not to mention their sloppiness at set pieces, the one aspect of the match for which they will have practiced diligently.
New Zealand try: New Zealand 34-6 Namibia
40 min: After a good defence-splitting kick from TJ Perenera, Nehe Milner-Skudder goes over for his second try of the match, only for the referee to send it upstairs to the TV match official. The try is duly given, but the conversion is missed by Beauden Barrett.
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40 min: Romain Poite drags Ben Franks and Johannes Coetzee out of the scrum and tells them to behave themselves or “maybe I will have a solution”. I’m not sure what they were up to ... who knows what goes on in that front row.
37 min: Namibia winger David Philander sees his whole life flash before his eyes as he comes this close to socring one of those length-of-the-field interception tries, only to knock the ball on instead of catching it. He looks devastated. Curiously, his shot at immortality came at the end of one of New Zealand’s best passages of play, with good work in particular from Nehe Milner-Skudder.
35 min: “There’s a neck-roll by No7 blue on No7 black,” says TV referee Georrge Ayoub, as Tinus Du Plessis is caught twisting the head of his opposite number Sam Kane. Referee Romain Poite calls him over for a ticking-off, Du Plessis apologises for his indiscretion and New Zealand have a penalty just outisde their own 22.
33 min: A rare spell of pressure from Namibia, who keep the ball for a couple of phases before being turned over just outside the New Zealand 22. Jacques Burger hits New Zealand lock Luke Romano in a ferocious challenge that leaves the Namibian captain in need of treatment for a cut over his eye.
New Zealand try! New Zealand 29-6 Namibia
30 min: Poor play from Namibia’s defence, who allow Beauden Barrett to break one Jacques Burger tackle after picking up the ball from a line-out, before sprinting between two defenders into the space behind the line-out to score under the posts. The bonus point secured for New Zealand, he adds the two points from the conversion.
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26 min: WIth his own pack being driven backwards, Namibia scrum-half Eugene Jantjies plucks the ball forward and kicks it forward. Colin Slade attempts to find Ju7lian Savea with a return punt, but his intentions are read by Johan Tromp, who is only prevented from bursting clear by a fine, potentially try-saving tackle from Sonny Bill Williams.
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Namibia penalty! New Zealand 22-6 Namibia
23 min: Theuns Kotze makes it two from two as Namibia win another penalty within sight of the posts.
21 min: That was a wonderful offload from Sonny Bill Williams, his second of the match. Held up en route to the line, he found Fekitoa without so much as a glance over his shoulder.
New Zealand try! New Zealand 22-3 Namibia
19 min: With New Zealand firmly in charge, they attempt to drive a rolling maul towards the Namibia line. The ball’s played out the back line and a brilliant offload from Sonny Bill Williams allows Malakai Fekitoa to score under the posts. Barrett converts to add another two points.
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16 min: Namibia are penalised for hinging in the scrum and Barrett kicks for the corner. Namibia win the ball at the line-out, but the clearing kick is intercepted and referee Romain Poite awards a 22-drop out, which Namibia attempt to play short but mess up.
An email from David Wall: “It’s not as though they need anything extra but the uniformity of black boots with black socks throughout the New Zealand teams just seems to make them look even more intimidating than they would be if players just wore boots of some colour or other,” he writes. “Perhaps football clubs (particularly those who wear dark socks) might take note. They try to micro-manage pretty much everything else that you’d think that they might have thought about whether any extra edge could be gained that way.”
Penalty: New Zealand 15-3 Namibia
13 min: Namibia win a penalty for an All Black infringement at the breakdown following a line-out. It’s not too difficult an opportunity and Namibia out-half Theuns Kotze takes the bare look off his side’s half of the scoreboard, getting a huge roar of approval for his efforts.
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Try: New Zealand 15-0 Namibia
10 min: New Zealand winger Nehe Milner-Skudder, one of just three players from New Zealand’s match against Argentina, jinks his way past two tackles to slam the ball down in the corner after being set up by Sonny Bill Williams. That’ll do his confidence no end of good after he missed an easy try-scoring opportunity against Argentina at the weekend. Barrett misses the conversion.
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9 min: Possession stats so far: New Zealand 82-Namibia.
Try: New Zealand 10-0 Namibia
6 min: Julian Savea goes rampaging up the touchline, breaking two tackles. He plays the ball inside and it finds its way to Sonny Bill Williams, who passes wide to Victor Vito, who goes over in the corner. Barrett adds the extras to make it 10-0 to New Zealand.
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Penalty: New Zealand 3-0 Namibia
4 min: New Zealand win a penalty after Namibia go over the top in a ruck and opt to kick it from about 25 metres, drawing hoots of derision from the crowd. Beauden Barrett slots the ball between the posts to put his side ahead.
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2 min: The Namibian scrum is driven backwards and disintegrates under pressure from the New Zealand pack, which is actually lighter.
Namibia kick off against New Zealand at the Olympic Stadium
1 min: The All Blacks immediately take possession and maul their up the field, before Namibia win the turnover and get a scrum on the halfway line. The crowd responds with a huge cheer.
Namibia face the Haka ...
It’s the first opportunity for Namibia’s players to face down New Zealand’s new arrowhead haka. They line across the pitch, shoulder to shoulder with their arms around each other’s shoulders as the All Blacks go through their pre-match ritual. Ireland famously took on the All Blacks in 1989 ... for all the good it did them.
Not long now ...
Having lined up in the tunnel, the teams march out on to the pitch at the Olympic Stadium and line up on either side of the match officials for their national anthems.
On an ITV viewers poll ...
... a majority of 40% of voters have predicted that New Zealand will win this match by between 61 and 90 points. Interestingly, 7% of those who voted think that Namibia, a team who lost 142-0 against Australia in 2003, will win. Interviewed before the match, their coach Phil Davies has said that the scoreboard will take care of himself and that his team will just concentrate on playing their own game and securing “little victories”. Good luck to them - a veritable walkover this may be, but there seems to be a huge crowd in the Olympic Stadium to watch this team, comprised of many amateurs, go about their business.
The original and the best?
Here, by way of comparison, is Kiri Te Kanawa’s version, which was commissioned for the World Cup in 1991. The sound is a bit ropey, mind.
Cue opening credits ...
It may not be as prestigious a gig for singers as the Bond theme music, but Paloma Faith has given the job of providing her take on World In Union for this year’s World Cup. Indeed, the 34-year-old singer has been accused of “murdering” the song by a number of people who found time in their busy schedules to sign a petition calling on |ITV to drop the song.
New Zealand skipper Sam Kane
At just 23 years and eight months, Chiefs open-side flanker Sam Cane will become the fifth youngest player of the 67 in history to skipper the All Blacks and his appointment by Steve Hansen has comes as something of a surprise. Promoted in the absence of Richie McKaw, who starts on the bench tonight, Cane is seen as a potential All Blacks captain for the future, although Kieran Read, who also starts on the bench tonight, is seen as McCaw’s successor.
“Sam’s time in behind Richie has been good for him in that he’s had to think about the team not just himself. He has also led the Chiefs and led them well,” said Hansen. “It is an overwhelming place to come into, the All Blacks. Special players sometimes don’t make it but he had the mental fortitude and he thrived in the environment. After a while, we thought he was capable of being a leader so we put him in the leadership group and he’s done a good job there.”
Cane was understandably delighted with his appointment. “It was extremely special to become an All Black for the first time but to be able to lead your country out stands even above that,” he said. “So I’m hugely honoured and extremely excited about it. I was thinking with the short turnaround between games that it would be good just to get a start and then Steve says, ‘You’ll be starting but you’ll also be captain’. It took me back a little bit. But it is something I’m hugely honoured about and I’ll make sure I go out and do it to the best of my ability.”
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A beautiful still evening before the New Zealand v Namibia match at the Olympic Stadium in London Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian
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New Zealand v Namibia line-ups
New Zealand: 1-Ben Franks, 2-Codie Taylor, 3-Charlie Faumuina, 4-Luke Romano, 5-Sam Whitelock, 6-Liam Messam, 7-Sam Cane, 8-Victor Vito; 9-TJ Perenara, 10-Beauden Barrett, 11-Julian Savea, 12-Sonny Bill Williams, 13-Malakai Fekitoa, 14-Nehe Milner-Skudder, 15-Colin Slade
Replacements: 16-Keven Mealamu, 17-Wyatt Crockett, 18-Tony Woodcock, 19-Kieran Read, 20-Richie McCaw, 21-Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 22-Ma’a Nonu, 23-Ben Smith
Namibia: 1-Jaco Engels, 2-Torsten van Jaarsveld, 3-Johannes Coetzee, 4-Tjiuee Uanivi, 5-Pieter-Jan van Lill, 6-Jacques Burger (captain), 7-Tinus du Plessis, 8-Leneve Damens; 9-Eugene Jantjies, 10-Theuns Kotze, 11-Conrad Marais, 12-Johan Deysel, 13-JC Greyling, 14-David Philander, 15-Johan Tromp
Replacements: 16-Louis van der Westhuizen, 17-Casper Viviers, 18-Raoul Larson, 19-Renaldo Bothma, 20-Janco Venter, 21-Rohan Kitshoff, 22-Eneill Buitendag, 23-Chrysander Botha
Match officials
Referee: Romain Poite
Assistant referee: Craig Joubert
Assistant referee: Mathieu Raynal
TV Match Official: George Ayoub
New Zealand v Namibia match preview
The reigning world champions take on the lowest ranked team in the competition at London’s Olympic Stadium, with All Blacks coach Steve Hansen having promised to give Namibia “total respect”, despite putting out a shadow side featuring just three of the players who lined up against Argentina last Sunday.
Hansen has picked reserve outside-halves and utility backs Colin Slade and Beauden Barrett at full-back and No10 respectively, with the pair likely to swap roles and place-kicking duties at half-time.
With his first choice side having come from behind to beat Argentina, Hansen has stressed the need to give the rest of his squad a run-out and by close of play tonight, all but Waisake Naholo, who continues to recuperate from a broken bone in his leg, are likely to have played in this World Cup.
For Namibia’s first match in this tournament, their Welsh coach Phil Davies has already conceded his team, comprised of seven professional players and eight amateurs including a dentist, a diamond trader, a bicycle salesman and several students hasn’t a prayer of beating New Zealand.
Yet to win a Rugby World Cup match after 15 attempts in four tournaments, Namibia are hoping to break their duck in this tournament and have their on their pool games against Tonga and Georgia as potentially winnable games ... but hope they can acquit themselves well against the mighty All Blacks first.
“If we can put together some good stuff, maybe score a great try or keep them out in a tough stage of the match defensively, we could think ‘yeah, we’re good enough to do this’,” their captain the Saracens wing-forward Jacques Burger has said. “For us as a nation, it’s definitely about the guys who work eight to five, they’ve offered up so much. They’re incredible. They’re not just good rugby players but good human beings.”
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