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Ireland thrash Namibia in the rain
SYDNEY, Australia -- Ireland were below their best in the Sydney rain but still thrashed Namibia 64-7 with loose forwards Alan Quinlan and Eric Miller both scoring twice. The victory gave Ireland a maximum 10 points from their first two games, taking them ahead of Australia to lead Pool A and leave Namibia without a point in its two outings and having conceded a total of 131 points. Ireland should have scored more but committed repeated handling errors due to the rain-slicked surface and poor passing by the backs. Ireland opened the scoring in the third minute when flanker Quinlan peeled off a rolling maul and charged over, Ronan O'Gara landing the conversion. Ireland's second try came in the ninth minute when star center Brian O'Driscoll's powerful run sucked in the Namibian defense and fullback Girvan Dempsey drove over. Ireland's most capped winger and top international try scorer, Denis Hickie, who crossed twice in Ireland's opening match against Romania, scored the third Irish try, carving through the flimsy Namibian defense and sliding over in the corner in the 14th minute. Namibia's work was made even harder in the 20th minute when second rower Heino Senekal was sinbinned for 10 minutes by Australian referee Andrew Cole for collapsing an Irish maul, but the Africans managed to stem the Irish scoring while Cole was off. But in the 31st minute prop Marcus Horan flopped on a ball dropped over the tryline by Namibia's Corne Powell and television ref Kelvin Deaker awarded him his first ever international try. Horan was only in the side for injured prop Reggie Corrigan. Quick penaltyThe Irish charge continued when captain Keith Wood took a quick penalty allowing No.8 Miller to score under the posts in the 35th minute. Namibia's only points came two minutes later when scrum-half Hakkies Husselman took a quick tap and Schalk van der Merwe juggled the ball before flicking a pass to center Powell who thundered over the line from close range. Emile Wessels converted to make it 33-7 at half time in front of 35,382 fans. Quinlan opened the scoring after the break with his second try after charging down a kick by fly-half Wessels. The second half was 20 minutes old by the time Guy Easterby, a replacement for scrum-half Peter Stringer, scored again. O'Driscoll failed to shine in the rain, knocking on over the line in the 63rd minute, although seconds later Miller crossed for his second try of the night. Shane Horgan scored in the corner to register Ireland's highest ever score in a World Cup, beating the 55 scored against Zimbabwe in 1991. O'Driscoll selflessly passed to John Kelly for Ireland's next try to take the score to 62-7 in the 77th minute before O'Gara's added two points with the conversion. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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