Welwitschias World Cup woes down to late preparations: Coetzee

By: Michael Uugwanga

National senior men rugby coach Allister Coetzee has underlined reasons behind the team’s continued Rugby World Cup suffering, which he said is largely down to late preparation. Coetzee told Rugby365.com that Namibia failed to win a single World Cup match due to the team’s late preparations for the tournament and a lack of international test matches. Namibia has played in previous World Cups in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019 and has yet to win a match at rugby’s biggest stage. Making a seventh World Cup appearance, Namibia was defeated 52-8 by Italy before losing 71-3 to New Zealand, 36-26 loss to Uruguay and were thrashed 90-0 by host France.

In light of this, Coetzee, who also coached South Africa’s Springboks, said Namibia still lacks international exposure compared to their World Cup opponents, who are spoiled with many international exposures, such as various international competitions outside or before the World Cup.

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