“It was frustrating. I think the last 20 minutes of the game there were 40 or so incidents that stopped the game,” Hansen said after the world champions notched their second win, but not by the avalanche some had predicted.

“It’s hard to play rugby when it’s stop start like that but we are going to have to deal with stuff like that going forward.

“It’s difficult, one scrum took about four minutes. I don’t know how to fix it. It’s not what the game wants.

“You get a game like tonight and maybe you’re going to lose some goodwill, and I’m talking about the fans.”

Even so he was full of praise for a Namibia side made up predominantly with amateurs.

“Early on I thought they committed themselves to the breakdown at the line-out and the tackle with great commitment and I think they should be really proud of themselves,” Hansen said. “They gave everything they could give.”

Hansen had made 12 changes to the side that had been made to work so hard by Argentina, although retaining wingers Nehe Milner-Skudder and Julian Savea proved to be the right call as they both scored two tries apiece.

Centre Sonny Bill Williams also pressed his case for a starting place, one moment standing out when he produced a stunning offload for midfield partner Malakai Fekitoa to score.

The All Blacks have group games against Georgia and Tonga to come and back row Jerome Kaino says there is much more to come.

“Give it to Namibia,” he said. “Tonight was a combination of us dropping our skill level and them putting pressure on us.

“We know that teams are going to really study us and put the microscope under everything we do.

“And we have to do better than we did tonight.”

The biggest cheer at the Olympic Stadium came in the second half when Namibia opted to kick for the line instead of going for three points and centre Johan Deysel, a university student, showed the strength to stay on his feet despite two tackles and break through for a try.

Namibia, who have never won a World Cup game and whose line-up included a dentist, some farmers and a diamond trader, fought bravely to avoid the rout that some had expected in the meeting of the tournament’s top and bottom-ranked teams.

“It was a very proud performance. We won a couple of small victories during the match which we can take into the next game, particularly to score a try against the best side in the world, who normally give others at times a solid hiding,” Namibia captain Jacques Burger said.