Live match tracker:
Ireland v Namibia
by Brendan Cole
FULL TIME: Ireland 35 Namibia 17
80+2 mins Namibia win the lineout but knock on out wide and Jutge blows it up, bringing an awful second half for Ireland to a close.
Well done Namibia.
80+1 mins Lineout Ireland on the Namibia '22. Wessels kicked it sideways; may have thought the game was over.
Brian O'Driscoll goes off for Geordan Murphy.
79 mins Ireland get a pen in their '22 and opt to run it. Nothing much happening though; and O'Driscoll kicks. Witbooi collects and tries an odd sidestep; bundled into touch.
Paddy Wallace comes on; immediately catches, runs and passes better than R O'G has all night from an Irish lineout near half-way.
Ireland knock on after a nice D'Arcy break.
78 mins Namibia still look good: moving it to the wingers and doing real damage when crashing it up the middle; Ireland lineout near their own line.
75 mins TRY! Ireland 35 Namibia 17 Jerry Flannery this time - Namibia want the TMO and they are right but Jutge awards ahyway. O'Driscoll instrumental, putting Hickie through; and then getting up to feed Flannery, who gets over but, replays indicate, fails to ground.
O'Gara misses from wide on the left touchline.
74 mins Fumble and spill by O'Gara - not a good night for him - and it's a Namibia scrum in the middle of their '22.
74 mins Namibia win the lineout; Wessels clears but doesn't make touch: Ireland run it back but Namibia break the move down when Hickie attempts a pass to B O'D
71 mins Ireland are still out of sorts; knock on by D'Arcy and poor decision which ruins a potential oversap by B O'D.
Free kick to Namibia at scrum in their '22 and Wessels kicks it to Hickie. Great return kick by Trimble puts Ireland on the 5 metre line: Namibia throw in.
Horan and Wallace are both off - Horan hopefully OK.
63 mins TRY! Ireland 27 Namibia 17 This times it's Bock, the right wing, that creates the havoc; chipping past Dempsey after some zippy Namibia play. Van Zyl gets through and manages to touch down - video ref have a look but it's just about OK.
No more than Namibia deserve.
Wessels converts.
59 mins TRY ! Ireland 27 Namibia 10
After a surging maul by Namibia, Nieuwenhuis gets a try.
Witbooi creates havoc down the left; getting past Horan and Hayes before Dempsey tackles; he offloads to the supporting number six.
Wessels gets the conversion.
53 mins O'Gara hits the touchline; but Namibia earn a penalty at the lineout and clear it.
51 mins Horan is injured - Ireland can't do without him in the key games - and he might have to come off.
He's OK though and will keep going - may come off for precautionary reasons soon.
Scrum time.
50 mins Ireland work the ball from the kickoff, running it down the left touchline, but another knock on, this time by D'Arcy, undoes the good work and it's a scrum to Namibia on halfway.
48 mins TRY! Ireland 27 Namibia 3
Penalty try for collapsing the scrum.
Not too popular with the crowd.
O'Gara converts from straight in front.
47 mins Ireland choose to scrum - they won't often take that option from a pen during this World Cup I reckon - and re-set after the first goes down.
Drive three yards and it goes down again:
45 mins Penalty Ireland on halfway - R O'G kicks as far the Namibia '22. Ireland maul the lineout making 5 then 10 then 15 yards and get advantage for it being taken down.
42 mins Penalty from halfway - another scrum - gives Ireland a penalty; kicked to within five on the Namibia line, but Namibia defend it.
41 mins Back underway - Ireland run the kick off back at Namibia, looking good before Hickie knocks on again down the left wing.
Not a good night for him so far.
HALF TIME: IRELAND 20 NAMIBIA 3
40 mins Penalty Ireland 20 Namibia 3 Wessels lines it up and...........
Knocks it over. Big cheer from the crowd. Jutge blows up the half.
38 mins D'Arcy takes it up from ball of the top but gets hammered - Ireland penalised for holding on (Horan) and Namibia opt to have a shot.
36 mins Pen Ireland from the scrum but O'Gara misses touch again! Drop kick effort by Losper is well wide.
More fisticuffs after the dropout - gentle stuff though.
34 mins Namibia maul to within two yards of the Ireland line, but an accidental offside call undoes them.
Scrum to Ireland five yards from their line. Leamy carries it up first and O'Gara clears but doesn't find touch - poor kick.
Hickie tackles, but Namibia have their tails up and are moving the ball nicely and carrying it well into contact in the Irish '22.
Advantage Namibia for hands in the ruck. Penalty Namibia.
Rory Best gave away the pen; not a great half from him.
Allez Les Bleu treatment from the crowd as Namibia kick to touch.
31 mins Charge by Leamy off the kick - he's having a stormer! Ireland work it left and knock on though. Scrum Namibia 10 yards from the Irish '22.
30 mins TRY! Ireland 20 Namibia 0 O'Calllaghan takes Best's throw and Ireland maul it. Taken down a yard short - final carry by Simon Easterby gets it over the line.
R O'G misses the con from near enough the touchline.
28 mins Penalty Ireland - another good scrum by Ireland. R O'G kicks to the corner.
28 mins Stringer goes blind - Heineken Cup Final style - pops to Leamy who hands off one before giving to O'Connell. Shifts left and back right - David Wallace's first charge: good to see.
Ends with a knock on by Ireland.
27 mins Ireland dominate the scrum and force a turnover agaisnt the head. It's gone 90 degrees anyway: scrum Ireland.
Generally, they are scrummaging well against a decent Namibia front row.
24 mins Handbags time. Best tackles and gets a heel of the hand in the fact from du Toit (?). Clears up quickly - Ireland lineout - messy again, and dropped forward. Again by Best.
Scrum Namibia on near their own 10 metre on their lleft touchline.
22 mins Ireland are going forward again, but a knock on at the base of the ruck near the Namibia '22 halts things.
21 mins Openside flanker Senekal goes down and looks as though he'll have to go off. Warm applause from the crowd. MacKenizie in.
19 mins Lovely break through midfield by D'Arcy off a nice RO'G pass, but its knocked on by Rory Best near the Namibian '22. They run it back to the Irish half.
18 mins TRY! Ireland 15 Namibia 0
Ireland get another try - O'Gara knocking the ball across from a penalty to Trimble. Nice take from the crossfield kick, and Ireland are on the way to big score.
O'Gara misses the con left.
17 mins Lovely ball off the top from an Irish lineout on halfway but the midfield stuff is a little pedestrian. Hickie gets a run though, and makes yards down the left.
Penalty to Ireland for Namibia diving on the ball.
16 mins: Penalty Ireland 10 Namibia 0
O'Gara knocks it over from a few yards to the right of the posts.
Probably a good move; things were getting stagnant.
15 mins Ireland are camped in the Namibia '22, but poor ball presentation to Stringer is hampering things, while the decision making is poor. Trimble run into touch, but Ireland have a pen advantage, and they opt for the easy three points.
13 mins O'Connell smashes it up - nice hands by the Irish backs - lovely B O'D transfer opens up Namibia - but Hickie drops it with the tryline gaping!
Namibia clear.
12 mins Penalty Ireland on the Namibia '22; this will tell a lot about Ireland's approach: they opt to kick it to touch; good move with points and tries needed in the 'Pool of Death'.
D'Arcy break contributed.
Namibia drive Ireland back off the lineout though.
11 mins Hickie hammered taking an up an under - he is down and groggy; little high, but probably fair.
Some welcome to the RWC for Hickie......
But he's OK and will play on.
Lineout for Ireland.
9 mins Up and under taken by B O'D - set up on halfway. Break by Leamy of a R O'G pass - fantastic handoff and he's made 30 yards. Ireland on the Namibia '22 but a knock on kills the move.
8 mins Not straight from Best at an Irish lineout. Wind affected it, but poor from the Ulster hooker. Namibia scrum on their own 10 metre line.
6 mins Namibia penalty: Easterby not rolling away. Irish 10 metre line halfway between touchline and centre of field and......
Wessels misses.
5 mins Wessels (Namibia outhalf) tries a drop goal; they gained possession from a very dodgy pass from Trimble; blind, behind his back and straight to an onside Namibia player.
3 mins TRY! Ireland 7 Namibia 0
O'Driscoll is back with a bang! Kick and chase from the left hand side on the '22 after Dempsey made yards down the wing and O'Driscoll collects to score a try. They had nobody in behind, and O'Driscoll spotted it brilliantly.
Record breaking 30th ever try for O'Driscoll.
O'Gara converts a tricky one.
3 mins Namibia defend well early - matching Ireland's attempted midfield drives. O'Gara decides to ping the corner and hits a beauty to put Namibia on the back foot.
Their lineout works well though, and the scrum-half clears down to halfway.
Trimble makes a nice break - through the centre - off the Irish lineout, but Ireland mess it up off the next breakdown and turn it over. Up and under collected by Stringer, who passes to Hickie - high risk pass! - Ireland take possession their own '22 and start to run.
1 mins Kick off collected by Namibia and cleared to halfway.
7.01pm Kick off time (Ireland kicking off) Joes Jutge (ref) checks with the touch judges.
18.59pm Ireland's Call time. Confirms my suspicion that all the anthems have been speeded up quite a bit - to keep up with the crowds? It ruined le Marseillaise on Friday night and it's doing no favours to Phil Coulter's little ditty.
That the singers on the tape sound a bit like the seven dwarfs is also less than ideal.
6.57pm Namibia first: martial, emotional and.......they're all swaying with arms linked. Nice moment.
6.55pm Lining up for the anthems; great to see Ireland finally getting on the pitch after all the talk.
6.52pm The teams are taking the field: Ireland in green, Namibia in dark blue on a beautiful warm evening in Bordeaux.
6.43pm Welcome to the live match tracker for Ireland v Namibia, Ireland's opening game in Pool D. If you have a few spare minutes before the off, why not try our new interactive player ratings system?
Who, Where, When? Ireland play Namibia at 7pm (Irish time) on Sunday evening in Bordeaux.
What's at stake? Ireland can't lose, so injuries are the major concern going into this one. With Pool D containing three big guns, try count could be important. Some fluency, after patchy form in the warm up games against Scotland and Italy, would also be welcome.
For Namibia, it's a case of keeping the score down, maybe getting some points on the board themselves and trying to prove that amateur v professional doesn't always have to mean 'hammering'.
Match preview: Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan has named his strongest team, even going so far as to put out his best bench. Brian O'Driscoll lines out having recovered ahead of schedule from a fractured sinus suffered against Bayonne while Andrew Trimble has taken the vacant wing spot from the still injured Shane Horgan.
Up front, Rory Best has gotten the nod over Jerry Flannery while Donncha O'Callaghan is picked ahead of Malcolm O'Kelly and will line out alongside Paul O'Connell in the second row.
While all players are equal, it is definitely the case that some are more equal than others. Injuries to John Hayes, Ronan O'Gara, Gordon D'Arcy or Brian O'Driscoll would all but spell the end of Ireland's Rugby World Cup hopes. To a lesser extent, if Denis Leamy, Marcus Horan, Paul O'Connell or David Wallace were to go down it would also give Ireland a serious problem going into the crunch games against France and Argentina.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IRELAND team to play Namibia:
Ireland bench: J Flannery, S Best, M O'Kelly, N Best, I Boss, P Wallace, G Murphy
O'Sullivan and his team have constructed Ireland's build up to have the side at full tilt for those clashes at the end of September, but even he has all but admitted that the poor showings against Italy and Scotland were cause for concern. Out of those games, two issues arose: first, Ireland's pack were unable to provide a stable platform when mauling - the Italians in particular seemed to have an upper body strength advantage - and the couldn't supply slick ruck ball.
Clearly, the backline needs decent ball to function at its optimum level, and that may be why part of the cause for the second problem: namely a lack of fluency from numbers nine, ten, twelve and thirteen. Poor decision making in broken field situations also hindered Ireland's rugby at times.
A few steps on the road back to the glorious offload and support play last seen in Rome at the end of the Six Nations would represent a success.
For Namibia, the problems are obvious. Among the weakest 'minnows' of all, the question is; "how can a team of amateurs compete against the best prepared side ever to leave Ireland?"
NAMIBIA team to play Ireland:
Namibia bench: J Meyer, J Redelinghuys, M MacKenzie, T du Plessis, J van Tonder, LW Botes, M Africa.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where Ireland are lavishly looked after and scientifically primed to perform at a phenomenally high level, Namibian preparations are, understandably, more traditional. While the motivation for them is clear - this is one of the few opportunities the Namibian players will ever get to represent their country on a major stage - the gap in sheer physical power seems insurmountable.
Ireland to win by plenty is the only possible prediction.
What they're saying:
Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll: 'Really top sides show respect for the smaller nations by playing flat-out for 80 minutes and scoring as many points as possible.'
Ireland forwards coach Niall O'Donovan: 'Namibia have a strong pack of forwards, most of whom play in South Africa so they're used to performing to a good standard,'' he said.
''They have a solid front row and a very strong back row who are particularly good at scavenging for the ball on the floor.
''They were recently 7-6 up against South Africa after the opening 10 minutes and, although South Africa came back, we know that they'll throw everything at us in the first 10 or 20 minutes.
''We'll have to show them respect.'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the odds: Not too many opportunities here: Ireland are 1/500 to win - i.e. you may as well leave your money in the bank for a few days - while the upset is only 40/1, so hardly worthwhile either even if you could see Namibia having the slightest chance.
The margin of victory market (5 point steps) is interesting: 55-60 is the favourite at 5/1, but with Namibia unlikely to rollover and Ireland lacking fluency it may pay to look up the list at the lower gaps. That said, the last 20 minutes will be punishing for the underdogs, and Ireland could score plenty of points during them if they hit their straps.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
