Namibia qualification already a World Cup success story claims coach

SAINT ETIENNE, France : Namibia will be looking to show improvement when they play their opening Rugby World Cup match against Italy on Saturday but coach Allister Coetzee says they have already achieved success by qualifying for the tournament in France.

Namibia take on Italy in their opening Pool A match at Saint Etienne’s fabled Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, hoping for a much closer contest than when they met the Italians last, also in their opening pool match at the 2019 World Cup where Namibia lost 47-22.

These finals in France mark the seventh successive World Cup for Namibia, who have lost all 22 past fixtures at the tournament, but Coetzee insists they are already winners.

"Success for a Namibian team is once you overcome all the challenges and you get to a World Cup for a seventh time, that is already success in its own right. There are a couple of big nations not lucky to be here. We have worked hard and played ourselves into this competition again,” said the coach.

"We don't only define our success by results on the scoreboard but we have to make sure that we have improved a lot, because these blokes have worked really hard.”

Coetzee said there had been many sacrifices made by his squad.

"Some players had to change jobs because of not qualifying for a month of leave from their work," he added.

The largely arid southern African country is vast but with a small population. It is the second least densely populated country in the world with 2.7 inhabitants per square kilometre.

"Firstly our players travel unbelievable distances in Namibia. Windhoek is in the centre but up north it’s five hours' drive to get to a training or a practice. To the coast is also four hours' drive, to the south it's even further, sometime seven