Namibia’s senior national rugby team, ‘the Welwitschias,’ suffered a crushing 96-0 defeat against France on Thursday night, extending the team’s winless record at the 2023 Rugby World Cup being held in France.

The Welwitschias suffered their third high-scoring defeat at this year’s tournament, with Les Blues (France) scoring 14 tries with no reply in the game played in Marseille.

The Namibian team had a forgettable first half, trailing 0-54 due to multiple handling errors.

Despite conceding such a high score at the halftime break the Namibian team should hold their heads high after showing some fightback in the second spell.

Despite not scoring any points, the Namibian team put up a valiant fight in the second half, an improved performance that was punctuated by a red card to centre, Johan Deysel. The Welwitschias, however, managed to hold off France’s attacks and prevent them from crossing the triple-digit mark.

Namibia is in Group A alongside hosts France, New Zealand, Italy and Uruguay.

France sits atop the group with three wins from their opening three games and the latest win sees them surpassing their previous biggest winning margin of 87-10, recorded against Namibia in their last home World Cup in 2007.

Namibia’s third defeat at the 2023 Rugby World Cup means they are rooted at the bottom of the table and will face Uruguay on 27 September in their final group game.

France leads Group A with 13 points, followed by Italy with 10 points from 2 matches; New Zealand has five points from two matches.

Uruguay, who have played two matches, currently sits fourth in the standings with zero points.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency