Namibia caused South Africa's A team a scare back in July

First up was South Africa A, who defeated them 25-9, and the Namibians were handed a second defeat a week on in their first ever game against Samoa.

Despite the two losses, the Namibians surprised both opponents with an attacking flair which belied their billing as overwhelming underdogs.

Most of the crowd in Windhoek expected the Springboks second-string, with a host of big names including Pieter Rossouw, Robbie Fleck and AJ Venter among them, to put the Namibians to the sword.

But they could find no way past the Namibian defence with visiting stand-off Derek Hougaard landing five penalties to Emile Wessels' one.

FORM IN 2003 5 July: Namibia 9-25 S Africa A 12 July: Namibia 18-40 Samoa 16 Aug: Kenya 10-32 Namibia 31 Aug: Namibia 82-13 Uganda

After the break, the South Africans finally managed to make their way across the try line, when Dale Santon bulldozed his way from a well-worked maul.

In what proved an uninspiring display by the visitors, they rarely looked capable of adding further scores.

Although Houggard landed the conversion and another penalty, the Namibians stole the second-half limelight.

Their continuing desire to break at every opportunity led to plaudits from the Windhoek crowd.

Namibia, however, struggled to come close to repeating their defensive heroics against the Samoans, conceding a total of five tries with the first being touched down as early as the second minute.

By the interval, courtesy of the boot of Earl Va'a and the first of three tries in the match by Dominic Feaunati, the visitors led by 18-3 at the interval.

AFRIKAANS RUGBY TERMINOLOGY Try: N drie Penalty: N strafskop Tackle: N laagvat Come on ref: Kom nou ref Cauliflower ears: Blomkool ore

Although Feaunati added two more scores after the break, the two teams were much more evenly matched in the second 40 minutes.

Namibia's invention was rewarded on the hour when Wolfie Duvenhage pounced from a line-out to touch down.

With the game already out of their reach, Du Preez Grobler added another Namibian score five minutes from time when the Samoan backs spilled the ball and Duvenhage ran in unopposed.

Lowlier opposition finally gifted Namibia their first wins of the year as they took on African rivals Kenya and Uganda and scored 114 points in the process.

The wins will work wonders for confidence but Namibia know that tougher opponents will be ready and waiting in Australia.