After its heavy opening defeat against Ireland last week (8-82), Romania seemed difficult to compete with South Africa. Unlike the XV of Clover, who came with their typical team for this demonstration, the Springboks had chosen to rotate their squad, and in great width compared to the team which had dominated Scotland. And this in no way harmed the performance of the world champions, who worked hard to complete the affair as quickly as possible, and without any feelings. The opening score in less than three minutes, an express offensive bonus (see figure), 12 tries including two hat-tricks for Cobus Reinach and Makazole Mapimpi, and a point of honor in not conceding the slightest point, which means that ‘in two matches, this defense has only conceded 3 points…
And all while being able to manage the rare executives lined up, like the hooker captain Bongi Mbonambi, replaced at the break, in a position where the Boks are now weakened with the loss of Malcolm Marx. The Sud-Afs wanted to avoid problems, they still encountered one, but it was before kick-off, when pillar Vincent Koch was injured during the warm-up.
The Romanians, for their part, have had very little success in existing. The Bordeaux public tried to push behind them as soon as they advanced, welcoming a breakthrough from the back Simionescu or a nice percussion from the center Gontineac. But on two highlights near the South African try line, they were penalized on the ground, to remain fanny in the end, since their scorer Manumua missed his only attempt from 22 m against the poles at the start of the match. .
The Boks were so far ahead that they took the opportunity to experiment, too: flanker Marco van Staden switched to backheel mid-match, pushed to the post in the scrum and threw, as if to test his credibility for the future competition without Marx.
11’13
This is the time it took the Springboks to score their first four tries of the match, to set a World Cup record: that of the fastest offensive bonus.
The player: Cobus Reinach
The Montpellier scrum half is used to playing understudy in the selection, aware of being behind Faf de Klerk in the hierarchy. But every time he starts, Cobus Reinach knows how to distinguish himself. Four years ago, in Japan, he scored three tries in 20 minutes against Canada. It was the fastest hat-trick in World Cup history. Four years later, he scored another hat-trick of tries against Romania, a bit slower.
If he opened the scoring after 2’45” by starting low behind a scrum, then took a hole in the center of the field after a recovery ball in the 9th, which put him on a good footing, he had to wait until the 24th minute to perfect his work, behind a Romanian scrum buried in his own 5 m. He gave way very early in the 2nd period to Jaden Hendrikse, one of his competitors for the role of substitute, not very to his liking. advantage this Sunday.
