Davies’ plucky Welwitschias give All Blacks first half scare

NEW Zealand recovered from a sticky start and two yellow cards to demolish Namibia, who had battled to within a point at 10-9 after half an hour. But the two-time defending champions accelerated away to eclipse their 58-14 victory over the Welwitschias at the 2015 World Cup.

“First half was pretty disappointing – we didn’t turn up with the right attitude and Namibia made us pay for that,” said coach Steve Hansen.

“They had more intent and played better than us in the first half. We sorted it out in the second half and played well.”

Hooker Dane Coles said Hansen was furious at half-time – giving them a major dressing-down.

“It was one of the better ones I’ve heard. And rightly so, we deserved it,” said Coles.

Namibia, who are still yet to win a World Cup Pool game in 22 attempts, were first on the board through a Damian Stevens penalty after two minutes.

New Zealand’s Jordie Barrett, in his first start at fly-half, put in Sevu Reece with a kick three minutes later, but then missed the conversion.

Anton Lienert-Brown fended off two defenders for New Zealand’s second try on 20 minutes, but Barrett missed the conversion again. Namibia twice worked their way up field and won a pair of penalties which Stevens knocked over to make it 10-9 after 30 minutes.

All Blacks prop Nepo Laulala was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle on Stevens, but Angus Ta’avao, minutes after coming on for Sam Cane, dived over for their third try and full-back Ben Smith added a bonus point fourth after the half-time gong to make it 24-9 at the break.

Joe Moody barrelled over a minute after the restart before Barrett burst through a gap and put Lienert-Brown over in the corner.

Reece grabbed his second try with a sprint down the right flank, and captain Sam Whitelock added another.

Lienert-Brown’s backof-the-hand offload set up Smith’s second try before Ofa Tuungafasi became New Zealand’s second player in the sin-bin, again for a high tackle.

Barrett found his kicking boots in the second half, nailing eight conversions and capping a fine performance with a late try to finish with a personal haul of 21 points.

TJ Perenara grabbed the All Blacks’ 11th and final try after a lengthy review of his acrobatic finish in the corner.

The All Blacks extended their record World Cup-winning streak to 17 matches dating back to the 2007 quarter-finals.

Namibia coach Phil Davies said: “The scoreboard isn’t pretty but I’m so proud of the effort.”