“Playing against France, on their soil, is a great privilege, a great honor and we will take up this challenge,” Pine Penaar, Namibia’s assistant coach in charge of defense, said on Wednesday on the eve of their match. World Cup-2023 against the Blues.
Facing France, the 3rd nation in the world and leading Group A after two successes, “we want to ensure that all the lessons learned against Italy and New Zealand have been taken into account and, with this in mind, we would like to put in a good performance,” added the assistant coach of the “Welwitschias” at a press conference in Marseille.
Namibia, 21st nation in the world, lost its first two group matches, against the Italians (52-8) then the All Blacks (71-3).
Against a “physically powerful” team and “world-class players,” added the assistant coach, “we hope to better realize our opportunities. To do this, tomorrow (Thursday, editor’s note) we will have to be more precise and faster, and above all adapt as quickly as possible to the French way of playing.
Especially since against Uruguay (27-12), the French XV “showed themselves disappointed with their performance so we know that against us, the Blues will want to achieve a better performance,” he said. concluded.
Namibian full-back Andre van der Bergh also reiterated how much it was a “privilege” for him and his teammates to play against France, especially in front of a stadium full of 67,000 seats, “something new for us “.
“We are going to give 100% tomorrow (Thursday, editor’s note), without thinking about who we will face us, but trying to respect our game plan,” underlined for his part the third line center Prince Gaoseb, saying expect “a lot of physical pressure” from the Blues.