South Africa hammer Romania 76-0 ahead of clash with Ireland

South Africa 76 Romania 0

South Africa scrumhalf Cobus Reinach and wing Makazole Mapimpi scored a hat-trick of tries each as their side cruised to a 76-0 Rugby World Cup Pool B win over Romania on Sunday and in the process tried out several of their squad experiments.

The Springboks had their bonus point within 12 minutes as they overwhelmed Romania with a fast start, before the heavens opened and the rain made for more challenging conditions.

As expected they were dominant in all facets of the game and while Uruguay and Portugal have provided a stern test for tier one nations at this World Cup, Romania are simply not at the same level having also lost their opener 82-8 to Ireland.

The Boks meet Ireland next in their third pool game in Paris on Saturday, which will be a huge step up in quality but also see a return of their first-choice players to the starting XV.

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They ran in 12 tries in all with further scores for outhalf Damian Willemse, hooker Deon Fourie, Grant Williams (two), fullback Willie le Roux and a penalty score in what became a box-ticking exercise after the first quarter of the game.

Hordes of Springboks fans gathered outside the Stade de Bordeaux before the match in their green jerseys, several sporting nothing but shoes and swimming trunks with the South Africa flag on in homage to famous images of scrum half Faf de Klerk after their 2019 World Cup win.

In contrast, there were only a scattering of Romania fans.

The Boks lost prop Vincent Koch when he was injured in the warm-up, his place in the side taken by Trevor Nyakane.

Romania, beaten 21-8 in their previous World Cup meeting with the Boks in 1995, were always going to be up against it but did not help themselves with a tentative start.

They were weak in the tackle and left too much space for their opponents to play as South Africa picked off their errors with four tries in the opening 12 minutes.

The Boks dominated the breakdown, winning 12 turnovers in the match, but the scoring slowed when a deluge of rain fell midway through the first half as they led 33-0 at halftime.

Fourie came on at the break for his first appearance at hooker since 2018. The loose-forward took over from Bongi Mbonambi and is now second-choice number two in the squad after injury to Malcolm Marx. He acquitted himself well under admittedly little pressure.

First-choice scrumhalf Faf de Klerk also came on at outhalf after 55 minutes in another of coach Jacques Nienaber’s experiments, but his lack of accuracy off the kicking tee may hasten calls for Handre Pollard to come into the squad as the replacement for Marx.

SOUTH AFRICA: W le Roux; G Williams, C Moodie, A Esterhuizen, M Mapimpi; D Willemse, C Reinach; O Nche, M Mbonambi, T Nyakane; J Kleyn, M Orie; M van Staden, K Smith, D Vermeulen.

Replacements: RG Snyman for Orie (41 mins); J Hendrikse for Reinach (46); F de Klerk for Willemse (57); S Kitshoff for Nche, F Malherbe for Nyakane (both 60); Not used: D Fourie, J Wiese, J Kriel.

ROMANIA: M Simionescu; T Manumua, J Tomane, T Gontineac, N Onutu; H Vaovasa, G Rupanu; I Hartig, O Cojocaru, A Gordas; A Motoc, M Iftimiciuc; A Gorin, V Neculau, C Chirica.

Replacements: C Boboc for Neculau (41 mins); S Iancu for Iftimiciuc (52); D Stratila for Gorin (55); A Savin for Hartig (57); G Pop for Tomane, R Irimescu for Cojocaru (both 60); A Conache for Gontineac (67). Not used: T Cretu.

Referee: M Raynal (Fra)