Battered and bruised but Namibia enjoy the battle

David Philander had the good grace to laugh as he discussed the All Blacks’ 58-14 win over Namibia.

Philander, who plays for Taranaki club Spotswood and previously repres- ented Poverty Bay, started on the right wing for Namibia in the Rugby World Cup pool match at Olympic Stadium. He didn’t cross the line, while his opposite number Julian Savea scored two tries.

Despite the heavy defeat, no-one is going to give Namibia a kicking for their spirited performance. Rather than criticise for allowing the All Blacks to run in nine tries in London’s East End, the general consensus among spectators and commentators was that they emerged with their self-respect intact.

Philander, who moved from Namibia to New Zealand several years ago with his wife and young daughter, and now lives in Taranaki, summarised what it was like to play the world’s top-ranked side. ‘‘They kind of keep the ball to themselves, they are not very good when it comes to sharing,’’ he said with a laugh.

Most importantly, Namibia know they retained their self-respect by being so competitive against an All Blacks side that bolted out to a 20-3 lead in the 21st minute and then slowly eased back to a slow boil. ‘‘Bruised,’’ Philander responded when asked what it was like to play the New Zealanders. ‘‘But there is a feeling of having done something, that we weren’t just beat-up all day.

‘‘The hits are 10-times bigger. They hit harder and these guys are bigger. They can make an 80 minute game into a very, very long day. It was harder than we initially thought,’’ Philander added. ‘‘We thought were going to come out guns blazing but we came out against a really well-oiled machine. They were pure class . . . It was really tough.

‘‘We tried putting in some big hits and our main aim was to let them know we were in the game, so at the end of the day we will take the bruises and have a good laugh about what happened.