Chris Latham, the World Cup’s unhappiest full-back, ran in a record five tries as Australia produced the biggest win in World Cup history against Namibia in Adelaide on Saturday.
Latham, called up by coach Eddie Jones for this record-shattering mismatch after missing the opening two games, sparked all kinds of trouble with a miserable appearance in front of the nation’s press on Wednesday.
Clearly angered by his non-selection, Latham was asked if he thought Namibia would be his first and last game of the tournament.
He said: ”I’ve given up predicting where I would like to be or where I should be.”
Could he see a team with both him and his replacement Mat Rogers in it?
”Room for me somewhere? Gee. That would be a turn up.”
On Saturday a considerably more cheerful Latham scored four of the 11 first half tries, one of them made by Rogers.
His fifth, also made by Rogers, came four minutes from time as the records fell like dominoes.
But after the whistle there was further misery for Latham when he was mistakenly called Whittaker by former Wallaby legend Tim Horan in the post-match interview.
Latham said: ”It’s Latham actually. I’m glad we didn’t let our standards slip.”
That was about the only mistake the Aussies made as they tore the Africans apart. Schalk van der Merwe, a lion tamer by trade (actually he’s a game ranger who specialises in lion conservation), was brought on but things got no better for the former German colony, once known as South West Africa, who have traditionally never been good enough to enter the top flight in South Africa, let alone the World Cup.
It was 69-0 by half-time, and the biggest Aussie win to date, 92-10 against Spain, was soon surpassed.
After the bravery of the Georgians against South Africa the night before, Namibia simply ran up the white flag. Amid pedantic refereeing and long injury breaks, the Aussies tried to keep the 28 000-strong crowd amused.
The first-ever Wallaby hundred came up in the 54th minute with Matt Giteau’s fourth try. Rogers kicked his 12th conversion in the 58th minute, another record. Only New Zealand’s 145-17 win over Japan in 1995 remained to be beaten.
England’s biggest win? That’s now the fourth biggest in the World Cup, 101-10 against Tonga in 1999.
Australia equalled the All Blacks’ record margin of 128 points with Latham’s fifth try, which in itself was the most to date by an Australian.
Rogers produced the record breaker with an 72,8m run down the wing to score Australia’s 21st try. He converted that to make it 40 individual points, another record.
John Roe got in for the last minute 22nd try as Australia pushed the Namibian scrum over their own line.
Namibia, your boys took a hell of a beating. But they’re not the only ones in a tournament which has featured far too many of these mismatches.