RWC: Namibia staring at blackwash

Saracens flanker Jacques Burger is Namibia's best known player. Photo / Getty

Namibia's immediate World Cup problem - and given they are the weakest team here they are likely to have a few - is how to limit the damage against the All Blacks in their first game while keeping some of their powder dry for their next assignments against Tonga and Georgia.

Namibia, ranked 20th in the world to the All Blacks' No1, have yet to win a World Cup match. They have attended four global tournaments and have played 15 games, but the result has always been the same.

A win or even a draw over the next four weeks would represent a successful mission and clearly in Tonga (ranked 11th) and Georgia (16th) they have their best chances of achieving that, but to compound matters they face the Tongans in Exeter only five days after facing the All Blacks at London's Olympic Stadium on Friday morning NZT.

They play their final match, against eighth-ranked Argentina, in Leicester four days after Georgia and it's likely to be another tough one.

The All Blacks won't select their strongest team for Namibia given the tight turnaround after tomorrow morning's match against the Pumas, but it might pay to keep the record books handy anyway. Namibia's worst World Cup defeat was a record 142-0 thrashing by Australia in 2003 in which they conceded 22 tries.

The All Blacks' highest World Cup score is 145-17 which came in 1995 against Japan. The All Blacks scored 21 tries, with Marc Ellis scoring six of them.

"We know what we're up against. We know we're not going to win the game," Namibia's coach Phil Davies told the Guardian newspaper. "It's a case of us playing to our maximum and that's all we can ask for."

Saracens flanker Jacques Burger - who had the rare honour of being the only current player at the World Cup to take part in the spectacular opening ceremony at Twickenham - is their best known player. The rest are made up of men who mainly ply their trade in England, South Africa, or France.

"We will continue to give our best, stay positive and work towards our goal of recording a first ever victory at the World Cup," Burger, an inspirational figure for his team, said.

It has been reported that Burger had to take pain-killing injections to get through a serious knee injury at the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand which ruled him out of the game for 18 months.