Cobus Reinach hat-trick triggers South Africa’s demolition of Romania at Rugby World Cup

BORDEAUX – South Africa scrum-half 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.

Despite making 14 changes from their opening 18-3 win over Scotland, 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.

Reinach’s 21-minute hat-trick is the second-quickest in World Cup history. He also holds the record for a 20-minute treble against Canada four years ago en route to the Boks lifting the Webb Ellis Cup.

They ran in 12 tries in all with further scores for fly-half Damian Willemse, hooker Deon Fourie, wing 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.

The world No. 2 South Africa meet top-ranked 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.

“I’m especially happy with a couple of things we tried. The three different hookers that we used, I thought that paid off. Then Faf (de Klerk) got some exposure at fly-half so I thought a lot of things that we wanted to get out of the game, we got,” Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber said.

Mapimpi said: “We prepared for the rain, we knew it was coming, but the only thing we spoke about was the physicality. We needed to bring it.

“I don’t put myself in front (first), it’s all about the team. It’s not about me walking over to score the tries. A lot of guys did well – Andre (Esterhuizen), Willie (le Roux) – and I appreciate their work.”

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 de Klerk after their 2019 World Cup win.

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

Beaten 21-8 in their previous World Cup meeting with the Boks in 1995, it was always going to be an uphill task for the Europeans, who 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 the interval.

Fourie came on at the break for his first appearance at hooker since 2018 and acquitted himself well in the absence of the injured Malcolm Marx, before flanker Marco van Staden was given a run in the front row as well.

First-choice scrum-half de Klerk came on at fly-half after 55 minutes 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, who is out of the tournament.

“We had the first 25 minutes in the Irish game and today the last 20 minutes of the first half, we can take some positives,” Romania coach Eugen Apjok said.

“We need to learn a lot about how to manage, especially in the breakdown.” REUTERS, AFP