Watched by his dad, former international Johan Deysel Snr., from the Olympic stadium stands, the 23-year-old brought an appreciative crowd to its feet when he powered over the tryline after 51 minutes.
The Namibians, the lowest ranked of the 20 teams in the tournament, lost their Pool C opener 58-14 but battled hard over the 80 minutes to restrict the world's number one team to nine tries.
“They invited us for a beer. We all went there and had a chat with the guys; such a lot of humble guys, the New Zealanders.” Deysel told reporters at the team's hotel on Friday.
Recalling his moment in the spotlight, Deysel said: "it just happened, everything was right".
“I think I got between the prop and the lock. At first I couldn’t see the line, I had to turn and see the line and I just went for it. When I put down the ball I knew it was a try.
"It meant a lot to see that we were able to score against the number one team in the world."
Looking forward to the remaining group games with Tonga, Georgia and Argentina, Deysel said it was good to know that New Zealand were not "super-beings" after all.
“The energy that we’ll take out from the New Zealand game we’ll have to take into the next game, because we don’t have a lot of time to prepare (for Tonga on Tuesday).
"Although we lost the game I think it was electric. We saw they’re not super-beings, they’re people like us with two legs and two hands. We’re very satisfied with our game.”
(Writing by Justin Palmer; editing by Ed Osmond)
Share
