Casablanca, 8 October : Morocco and Namibia will face each other in the final play-offs in Africa’s Rugby World Cup Qualifying round. In Casablanca Morocco beat Cote de Ivoire 23-seven to claim top spot in pool B of the AFRICA Cup. Their opponents in the play-off, Namibia recorded a hard fought 23-15 win over Tunisia in Windhoek to jump to the top position in pool A. Tthe first play-off is scheduled for Windhoek on the 28 th of this month, two weeks later Namibia will travel to Casablanca for the return match.
Ahead of the match in Casablanca, Morocco were leading pool B with eight points followed by Uganda and Cote de Ivoire with six points each. The only for the Cote de Ivoire to win the group was to beat Morocco by 49 points. Theny never came close to doing so. Morocco’s pack of forwards, most of them based in France, dominated the forward play and laid the foundation for a well earned victory.
Morocco’s Thomas Garcie opened the scoring with a penalty, ten minutes later the Moroccan captain and hooker Jalil Narjissi scored after continues pressure on the Cote de Ivoire tryline. The try was not converted and gave the homeside an eight-nil advantage at the break.
The second was one which both teams would like to forget as soon as possible. Puncutated by poor handling and just general lack of direction this period was not a good advertismeent for african rugby. Morocco were awarded a penalty try after persistent infringements from the West African side. Garcia converted and then extended the lead with a long range penalty and at 18-nil , Morocco were home and dry. Mathia Carcia, brother of Robert then clinched the victory with a try ten minutes before time. The Cote de Ivoire scored a late consolation try to take the final score to 23-seven in favour of Morocco.
In Windhoek it was a much closer affair and only two penalties in the second half secured victory and a place in the next round for Namibia. Namibia were bottom of the group going into the match after defeats in Tunis and Nairobi and had to win to keep their World Cup dream alive.The match was played in terrible conditions with intermittent rain throughout the 80 minutes. Namibia were leading 17-15 at the break following a penalty try, a converted try and penalty to Tunisia’s two tries and a penalty. The two late penalties by Morne Schreuder put Namibia in the clear to win by 23-15.