KAMPALA, July 28– Namibia defeated the United Arab Emirates to qualify for the final stage/repechage qualifier for the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
After failing to qualify for the World Cup automatically following a defeat to Zimbabwe in the Rugby Africa Cup, Namibia dominated UAE 86-29 in the Asia/Africa play-off at the Mandela National Stadium in Kampala, Uganda.
The Asian side took the lead after only three minutes through Emosi Vecanaua’s try, with Max Johnson scoring the conversion to give the UAE a 7-0 lead.
But Namibia fought back with a quick transition to pull back a try by Jurgen Meyer. Andre van der Berg missed the conversion, while Johnson made no mistake scoring a penalty for UAE to take its lead to 10-5 after 10 minutes.
Namibia later ran riot, with a try from Richard Hardwick and three more by Torsten van Jaarsveld seeing them take a 39-22 halftime lead.
Moments before the break, the UAE’s Matthew Mills was yellow carded and sin binned. In the second half, Namibia continued to run rings around the UAE with high levels of dominance.
Aston Mukwilongo and Danie van der Merwe scored two tries apiece, while Armand Combrinck and Max Katjijeko also got their names on the scoresheet for Namibia, who survived a period with 14 men after a player was sin binned.
UAE fly-half Johnson told Xinhua that his side had failed to perform well against a strong opposition. “We lost to a good side,” rued Johnson.
Namibia, which has played at every Rugby World Cup since 1999, will now play in the final qualification tournament in Dubai this November.
This will take the format of a four-team round robin also featuring Belgium and two teams yet to be decided, with the winning team qualifying for the 2027 World Cup. (Xinhua)
