Namibia claim historic series

Namibia defeated Russia 45-5 in Windhoek on Saturday to clinch the Friendship Series 2-0 after the hosts also won the first Test a week ago.

The emphatic victory underlined the huge difference a week can make with both head coach Phil Davies and backline coach Pieter Rossouw having had more time with the team.

The victory produced a more controlled and clinical performance than a week ago. Russia also produced a better performance but the difference was that the hosts improved a great deal more and the five tries to one was testimony to the hosts dominance.

Flyhalf Theuns Kotzè slotted a third minute penalty and wing Russell van Wyk then scored his third try in as many matches to put the hosts in the lead 8-0. Kotzè converted and then added two more penalties leaving Namibia in full command at 16-0.

Russia scored late in the first half by the means of a clever move at the front of the line out to see hooker Evgeny Matveev score his side's only points of the match.

The visitors started the second half with more intent only to see all their good intentions go up in smoke when Kotze countered from his 22 and ran almost the entire half of the field to score at the other side.

With Russia's frustration growing by the minute, South African referee Marius van der Westhuizen had his work cut out to put a lid on things. Namibian captain Jacques Burger and Russia's centre Dmitriy Gerasimov were sent to the sin bin following a scuffle.

The visitors' lack of discipline cost them when a try at a crucial stage of the match was disallowed after the assistant referee spotted loose forward Pavel Butenko throwing a number of punches. Butenko was also sent to the sin-bin to leave Russia down to 13 men.

Kotze had one of his best performances and executed a near perfect cross-kick that found Conrad Marais, who scored Namibia's third try. Kotzè converted and slotted a third penalty to extend the lead to 31-5.

Marais used his pace to score his second try with five minutes remaining after he benefited from a clever Burger kick before closing the match with a spectacular, long range try. Johan Tromp set up Marais, who completed his hat-trick.

"We played a much more controlled game today, our game management was much improved. We put pressure on our opponents and I was impressed with our team's patience, it paid of with some very good tries," said the former Springbok wing Rossow.

Scorers:

For Namibia:

Tries: van Wyk, Kotzè, Marais 3

Cons: Kotzè 4

Pens: Kotzè 4

For Russia:

Try: Matveev

Yellow cards: Jacques Burger (Namibia), Dmitriy Gerasimov (Russia), Pavel Butenko (Russia)

Teams:

Namibia: 15, Chrysander Botha 14 Conrad Marais, 13 JC Greyling, 12 Johan Deysel, 11 Russel van Wyk, 10 Theuns Kotzè, 9 Eugene Jantjies, 8 Zana Botes, 7 Tinus du Plessis, 6 Jacques Burger (captain), 5 Janco Venter, 4 Tjiuee Uanivi, 3 Raoul Larson, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Casper Viviers.

Replacements: 16 Louis van der Westhuizen, 17 Jaco Engels, 18 AJ de Klerk, 19 Renaldo Bothma, 20 Rohan Kitshoff, 21 Arthur Bouwer, 22 Darryl de la Harpe, 23 Heinrich Smit.

Russia: 15 Anton Ryabov, 14 Igor Galinovsky, 13 Dmitriy Gerasimov, 12 Vladimir Rudenko, 11 Andrey Otrokov, 10 Yury Kushnarev, 9 Alexey Shcherban, 8 Viktor Gresev, 7 Dmitriy Krotov, 6 Andrey Temnov, 5 Pavel Butenko, 4 Andrey Garbuzov, 3 Innokentiy Zykov, 2 Evgeny Matveev, 1 Alexey Volkov.

Replacements: 16 Stanislav Selskii, 17 Vladimir Podrezov, 18 Evgeny Pronenko, 19 Alexey Panasenko, 20 Danila Chegodaev, 21 Rushan Iagudin, 22 Evgeny Kolomiitsev, 23 Alexey Mikhaltsov.

Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)

Assistant referees: Danie Koen, Namibia), Coenraad Moolman (Namibia)