Ireland Crush Namibia

First half tries from Alan Quinlan, Girvan Dempsey, Denis Hickie, Marcus Horan and Eric Miller set Ireland up for a final 64-7 scoreline against Namibia in rain sodden Sydney today

First half tries from Alan Quinlan, Girvan Dempsey, Denis Hickie, Marcus Horan and Eric Miller set Ireland up for a final scoreline against Namibia in rain sodden Sydney today. The game was played in a torrential downpour but despite this the Ireland line-out – in which Paul O’Connell was superb – worked superbly well to give Ireland a firm platform to launch their attack.

In contrast Namibia could never be sure of possession from their lineout, struggled in the set scrum and offered no threat in the backs.

Ireland scored their first try in the third minute when Quinlan rumbled over from a rolling maul and the Munster man opened the scoring in the second half when he claimed his own block down to race in for his side’s 6th try in the 51st minute.

Six minutes after he arrived on as a replacement for captain Keith Wood, Guy Easterby scored try number seven, Miller scored his second in the 65th minute and the rout ended with further scores from Shane Horgan and replacement John Kelly

Ireland G Dempsey (J Kelly), S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, K Maggs, D Hickie; R O’Gara, P Stringer (G Easterby 52 min) ; M Horan, K Wood (S Byrne 52 min), J Hayes (S Best 70 min); M O’Kelly, P O’Connell; S Easterby, A Quinlan, E Miller.