Namibia fight back to edge Chile

REPORT: Namibia produced a strong fightback in the second half to beat Chile 28-26 in a World Cup warm-up match in Temuco on Saturday.

The hosts, who are competing in their first World Cup later this year, had a commanding 26-7 lead with just 20 minutes to play before Allister Coetzee’s team turned up the heat with three converted tries.

Chile had a 14-0 lead after 18 minutes with tries from Rodrigo Fernandez and Inaki Ayarza and two conversions by Santiago Videla.

Namibia opened their scoring after 20 minutes with JC Greyling scoring and Tiaan Swanepoel converting.

However, Chile had the final say of the first half after Martin Sigren found his way to the tryline.

It was more of the same in the second half with Chile scoring their fourth try via Domingo Saavedra and Videla adding the extra two points.

After that score, Namibia started their fightback and it was kicked off with a Divan Rossouw try.

A few minutes later Louis Van Der Westhuizen narrowed the gap with his team’s third try before the comeback was completed with Adrian Ludick’s try in the 70th minute.

Crucially, Swanepoel converted all those tries from the kicking tee.

The scorers:

For Chile:
Tries: Fernández, Ayarza, Sigren, Saavedra
Cons: Videla 3

For Namibia:
Tries: Greyling, Roussouw, Van der Westhuizen, Ludick
Cons: Swanepoel 4

Teams:

Chile: 15 Inaki Ayarza, 14 Santiago Videla, 13 Matias Garafulic, 12 Domingo Saavedra, 11 Nicolas Garafulic, 10 Rodrigo Fernandez, 9 Marcelo Torrealba, 8 Alfonso Escobar, 7 Clemente Saavedra, 6 Martin Sigren (Captain), 5 Javier Eissman, 4 Pablo Huete, 3 Matias Dittus, 2 Augusto Bohme, 1 Salvador Lues.
Replacements: 16 Tomas Dussaillant, 17 Javier Carrasco, 18 Esteban Inostroza, 19 Santiago Pedrero, 20 Ignacio Silva, 21 Lukas Carvalo, 22 Pablo Caras, 23 Francisco Urroz.

Namibia: 15 Divan Rossouw, 14 Chad Plato, 13 Johan Deysel (Captain), 12 Danco Burger, 11 JC Greyling, 10 Tiaan Swanepoel, 9 Damian Stevens, 8 Richard Hardwick, 7 Max Katjijeko, 6 Wian Conradie, 5 Ruan Ludick, 4 Adriaan Ludick, 3 Aranos Coetzee, 2 Louis van der Westhuizen, 1 Desiderius Sethi.
Replacements: Lodewikus Jacobs, Jason Benada, Casper Viviers, Tiaan de Klerk, Johan Retief, Prince Gaoseb, Jacques Theron, Andre van der Berg.

Referee: Craig Evans (Wales)
Assistant Referees: Francisco Gonzalez (Uruguay) & Matias Esteban (Uruguay)