Saturday 28 September 2019 13:47, UK
South Africa flexed their muscles with a 57-3 win over Namibia in their Rugby World Cup Pool B clash at Toyota Stadium.
Despite being neighbours, the two sides are worlds apart in terms of their rugby, with Namibia only having a handful of professional players playing outside their country.
The Springboks had lost their opening Pool B fixture to New Zealand, but Rassie Erasmus' side predictably eased to victory against Namibia, at 23 the lowest-ranked team at the World Cup.
Namibia included university students, a brewery engineer and a qualified dentist in their part-time ranks and they were placed under fierce pressure from the start.
South Africa dominated every facet of play and only some careless handling prevented a bigger margin of victory that might have had World Cup statisticians scrambling for the record books.
Namibia's try-line survived until the 10th minute when hooker Mbongeni Mbonambi drove over, and Bath flanker Francois Louw immediately added another score with the writing on the wall for the underdogs.
Despite No 8 Adriaan Booysen being sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock on, there was some respite for Namibia as fly-half Cliven Loubser kicked a penalty after Mbonambi had claimed his second try.
To their credit Namibia kept their heads up and fought back, with the limited possession and territory they had, and did well to stem the Springboks' attack.
However, it was back to Bok business as Makazole Mapimpi went over for their fourth try in the 27th minute to register the quickest bonus point in the 2019 World Cup so far.
South Africa got their fifth on the cusp of half-time with Lukhanyo Am going over after an offload from Schalk Brits. Elton Jantjies added his third conversion to make it 31-3 at the break.
South Africa's sixth try was off a counter-attack as Am cut through the Namibia defence before passing to Warrick Gelant who went over unopposed.
Moments later Mapimpi claimed his second touchdown before Siya Kolisi - on for Kwagga Smith - went over to bring up the 50 points.
Namibia conceded their second yellow card of the match when Johannes Coetzee was sin-binned for an illegal tackle on Brits - and it was Brits who claimed their ninth try after good work from the driving lineout.
Jantjies added the extras for a 12-point haul as he completed a comfortable victory for the two-time world champions.
But at least Namibia could take satisfaction from improving on their two previous meetings with South Africa, which they had lost 105-13 and 87-0.
