Thursday, September 13, 2007
Namibian heroics vs Ireland
Of course, there will be upsets, but really it's about giving the so called "minnows" a chance to have their moment in the limelight. In some cases these teams will use this chance to shine and seize the opportunity with both hands.
This is what we saw when Ireland played Namibia in what should have been a thrashing by the experienced Irish outfit against a small African country that is primarily made up of amateurs and club players. However, team-work was truly the source of this underdog story.
Yes, Ireland were victorious on the night, but the real victory was Namibia's passion, teamwork and dogged competitiveness.
They slowed Ireland's ball, they defended courageously and they attacked opportunistically. The final score was 32-17 in Ireland's favour, but really, it was a night the Namibians will never forget. A night when college players took on seasoned professionals in the game we all love. This was the true spirit of rugby. Playing for the man next to you and never giving up is the way rugby was always meant to be played.
Had Ireland's final try been referred to the TMO, it would have quite possibly been disallowed. Plus, I can't help but think if the ball had bounced differently in one or two instances the scoreline could've been even closer.
Here's to Namibia and all developing rugby nations. If the World Cup has shown us one thing so far, it's that these smaller nations undoubtedly deserve their place on stage, as supporting roles in the greatest show on earth.
Posted at 8:29 am | 13 comments
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Viewing 13 comments
Anonymous September 13, 2007 7:59 pm
Great guts shown by namibia, ireland will want to forget about this as quickly as possible bcuz if their going to have doubts bfore the argentinia and france games its gona cost them big time, u have to be fully prepared and confidence must be high if their gonna beat those two.
Anonymous September 13, 2007 8:39 pm
argentine gave inspiration for other teams...go pumas,,,
Daff September 13, 2007 10:13 pm
A great game of rugby- shows how what a difference some funding and a couple of years can make to a team. 2003 the second tier nations were simply brushed aside having not kept up with the bigger nations. Great to see them competing. The IRB would be mad to cut the number of teams to 16 in the tournament! Murray Mexted was absolutely loving the Namibians in this game- so much for Brian O'Driscoll other than his try he was completely anonymous!
Anonymous September 14, 2007 12:41 am
portugal, namibia, georgia...and what about the fiji-japan game! so happy to see quality rugby from them! not to mention argentina and samoa cause they are already famous for their rugby...and a bit of offtopic-horrible irish jerseys!thats springboks not irish green!
Not watching the Eng September 14, 2007 10:32 am
Speaking of 3rd tier teams, England did really well against the USA.Argentina gave us inspiration to scrape that win
Anonymous September 14, 2007 10:48 am
These teams shouldn't be considered as only ever going to have "supporting roles", they should be given the opportunity to become as good as anyone else. When are the tri-nations going to let Argentina join?? FFS. They've proven their quality, now let them join. SA, NZ, Oz, are all far too conservative - the 5 nations accepted Italy, and it became the Six nations, and the rugby scene from grassroots up has improved immeasureably there. (Though you wouldn't know from their poor show against NZ!)
James September 14, 2007 11:48 am
Looks more like Argentina will join the 6 Nations now.Think they'd be better off in the tri really. Thought it was all sorted for the tri Nations, but they're talking about basing themselve in Portugal or Spain now.
Anonnymouse September 14, 2007 12:52 pm
Argentina is perhaps a little bit far away for the six nations.....
Anonymous September 14, 2007 1:13 pm
In the 6 nations, taking England as the major example - between club and country, the players are playing too many games as it is; having a 7 nations is not going to help this!
Anonymous September 14, 2007 1:37 pm
Thats what rugby is all about.. you should have seen georgia playing argentina, the goergians are strong...Cant wait to see them play ireland
Anonymous September 14, 2007 2:08 pm
from a purely selfish point of view its better if argentina join the six nations as if they were to join the tri nations you could see alot of the top quality argentinians playing in europe (contepomi, hernandez et al.) moving down to super 14 territory.
Anonymous September 14, 2007 5:16 pm
that was a terrible performance from Ireland, Denis Hickie and Roy Best were awful in particular, ireland really need to improve against Georgia if we're to make it out of the group. by the way, to those who call that colour of jersey SA green, that was actually the old colour of the Ireland jersey, they only changed to lighter green at the start of the 90's, and i think it looks great, as do all the new canterbury ones, compaired to englands which is the worst jersey in history
Anonymous January 06, 2008 2:15 am
rory best played very well at the world cup hickie.....no O'gara wasn't up to much to be honest
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