Boks match Ireland’s try haul as focus turns to showdown
FREE-SCORING: South Africa's Cobus Reinach. Pic: ©INPHO/SteveHaagSports/Steve Haag
Not so much a game as a distraction. The Springboks did what had to be done, their dozen tries matching Ireland’s haul against the same opposition in the same stadium a week before, and ticking the last box before a Pool B meeting with Andy Farrell’s men next week.
The most important stuff unfolded outside the bounds of the 80 minutes.
Eben Etzebeth was strolling around the turf beforehand, resting a shoulder that is expected to be healed enough in time for that Paris date. Then word came through that tighthead Vincent Koch had suffered a knee injury in the warm-up and wouldn’t play.
Another complication for a coaching staff that had already lost key hooker Malcolm Marx for the tournament because of an innocuous knee injury in training at the start of the week, but one that did at least allow room for the fit-again Handré Pollard.
The worst-kept secret of this World Cup was duly confirmed with an official call-up a couple of hours after this most basic of trial runs. Pollard brings a reliability off the tee that the Boks have lacked in his absence, not just here in France, but in the recent past too.
South Africa missed four kicks on goal in the 18-3 defeat of Scotland and they matched that against Romania. Manie Libbock, Damian Willemse and Faf de Klerk have all dirtied their bibs in that regard. Pollard will play a big part sooner or later.
“I think we had 11 conversions taken today with two different kickers, they missed four,” said head coach Jacques Nienaber who has parroted a consistent line on this. “They must just keep on working. It’s not an issue for me.”
It’s hard to see the 29-year-old featuring against Ireland. Too soon, surely, but there will be scope to break Pollard in more gently when the world champions fulfill their pool obligations with a closing clash against Tonga in Marseille in two weekend’s time.
That’s for another day but Nienaber doesn’t talk about other days.
The Boks head coach has worked with Munster, he will be joining Leinster once this tournament is over, and he has known for three years that Ireland would be the pinnacle in terms of opposition in these early stages.
His head must be full of them already and yet he would have us believe he was only half-interested in their next opponent’s last run, against Tonga in Nantes on Saturday when Farrell named a much stronger side against weaker opposition than the Boks.
“I watched the game, but I didn’t look at it from an analytical point of view. For us, it was focusing on today’s match and respecting Romania properly. Also, our players who played tonight, we couldn’t think about Ireland.
“It would be disrespectful to the players we selected for this game. Our job is to have them prepared to perform so they could put their hands up to be selected next week. So we watched Ireland, scanned them a little bit, but the analysis will start tomorrow.”
Nienaber managed all that with a straight face but the Boks will be merely topping up on their knowledge base when they reconvene today. Months of prep have been put in on this one game by now and they approach it on the back of a six-day turnaround.
That Ireland were on their minds was obvious here in the 14 changes they made to the starting XV from game one, in the decision to give captain Bongi Mbonambi the shepherd’s hook at half-time, and in the minutes put into Deon Fourie and Marco van Staden.
The latter pair will now act as back-up at hooker through the tournament despite their lack of game time in the department but then the Boks are making a habit of the unconventional with four hookers featuring here, one as a wing and another as a ten.
“Internally, we had massive respect for Romania and gave them a lot of attention and analysis during the week and we wanted to get something out of the game for us. That was giving guys opportunity,” said Nienaber.
“We say Faf [de Klerk] covers fly-half for us but you want to see him at a World Cup, training there. The same with the No 9s, the hookers. In terms of getting guys opportunities at a World Cup, that was our goal. There was good and bad in that.”
Little else from this game will filter over to next week, although Munster’s Jean Kleyn might be hoping that his high tackle on Adrian Motoc invites no more interest than the penalty awarded to Romania at the time by Mathieu Raynal.
W Le Roux; G Williams, C Moodie, A Esterhuizen, M Mapimpi; D Willemse, C Reinach; O Nche, B Mbonambi, T Nyakane; J Kleyn, M Orie; M van Staden, K Smith, D Vermeulen.
D Fourie for Mbonambi and RG Snyman for Orie (both HT); J Hendrikse for Reinach (46); F de Klerk for Willemse (56); F Malherbe for Nyakane and S Kitshoff for Nche (both 60).
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.
C Boboc for Neculau (HT); T Cretu for Gordas (51): S Iancu for Iftimiciuc (52); D Stratila for Gorin (55); A Savin for Hartig (56); R Irimescu for Cojocaru and G Pop for Tomane (both 60); A Conache for Gontineac (68).
M Raynal (France)
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