Lots to watch out for as Boks face Romania

When South Africa made their first appearance at a Rugby World Cup back in 1995 the midweek team under the captaincy of Adriaan Richter stuttered to an unconvincing 21-8 win, but it won’t be nearly as close when the two sides clash again on Sunday.

Romania were frequently combative in the old amatuer era but they are one of the nations that were left behind when the sport became professional.

They were smashed by Ireland in their first round game and also got outplayed by big scores in most of their warmup games so there shouldn’t be any expectation of them being competitive in their second round Pool B fixture in Marseille. It’s not about whether the Boks will win by a big score, but by how big that wide margin will be.

That though doesn’t mean there isn’t much to be interested in for Bok fans, and also much for the South African team to be led by hooker Bongi Mbonambi to play for.

For a start, while it is not a huge thing, there is the small matter of the potential for points differential coming into play should the teams competing for top spot in the Pool or quarterfinal qualification be tied together at the end of this phase in early October.

IRELAND LAID DOWN A MARKER

Ireland’s big win laid down a marker. They topped 80 points and the Boks should look to do the same. They appear to have selected a team geared towards running up a big score too, with plenty of pace and mobility throughout the starting team and on the bench. On that topic, they also have several players equipped to stop Romania troubling the scorers, with Deon Fourie now covering hooker but that doesn’t mean he won’t still also be his usual potent self when it comes to being a pain to the opposition in the battle for the ball in the ground.

The starting team has Marco van Staden, Kwagga Smith and Duane Vermeulen in it, the front five is not at full strength but should still be way too strong for their opposition, so it is hard to see how Romania can get any kind of foothold in the game.

NO WAY TO SUGAR-COAT LOSS OF MARX

The earlier mention of Fourie though cues the topic of the other talking point ahead of this game, which is the loss to injury from this World Cup of Malcolm Marx and the possible impact that could have on the South African World Cup chances.

There is no way to sugar coat it - losing Marx is a massive loss, on the same scale as the loss of the highly influential trio of Handre Pollard, Lukhanyo Am and Lood de Jager ahead of the World Cup. Fourie is certainly not a like for like replacement and while it appears the Bok coaches are waiting to see what happens with Fourie as a hooker on Sunday, you can’t pretend the Stormers looseforward is a like for like replacement.

For a start, it takes away the power impact of the so-called Bomb Squad. Surely it is only a matter of time before Joseph Dweba, who is a strong ball carrier though at time suspect when throwing at the lineouts, gets called up to the squad, but it will be interesting nonetheless to see how Fourie goes in a position he started out his career playing but hasn’t played in quite some time.

Ditto Faf de Klerk as the flyhalf backup in this game to Damian Willemse, who is getting a slightly overdue chance to reacquaint himself with the No 10 jersey he wore with such distinction on the 2022 end of year tour.

THIS IS THE TIME TO EXPERIMENT

It really is hard to see the Boks retaining the World Cup trophy with the number of apparently makeshift selections that are currently being made, but then to criticise them for making those selections would be wrong if you consider that this is a game against Romania and therefore equates to a kind of practice game scenario. If you don’t try new things now, when do you do it?

Grant Williams at wing is an interesting selection as is the talk of Marco van Staden as the third hooker. It seems there is even more versatility in the squad than we thought, and the selection of four scrumhalves certainly retains the South African reputation for thinking outside the box.

And that’s the thing - it is hard to tell from afar how much of the mixing and matching of positions is done in hope and how much of it is the product of hard work behind the scenes. Certainly the selection for this game gives coach Jacques Nienaber the opportunity to justify what many thought was a bizarre decision to take four scrumhalves to the World Cup. As it stands for Sunday, it is two scrumhalves and a wing and flyhalf.

VERSATILITY IS THE PAY-OFF FOR NIENABER

“From the start people were wondering why we were taking four scrumhalves but if you look at the versatility within that, that is what we saw,” said Nienaber in announcing his team.

“Grant (Williams) played his school career on the wing, it was only in his last couple of games at that level that he moved to No 9. Like you saw in the game against New Zealand, a guy like Cobus Reinach can also help us out at wing as well.

“Faf de Klerk played the majority of his school career at flyhalf. He also played there for the Lions in Super Rugby and the Sale Sharks in the Premiership. Yes, there are four different nines, but a lot of them have played different positions. That’s nice for us.”

It will be if it comes through swimmingly on Sunday and that’s an intriguing extra angle to watch out for as the Boks head into a game they should be expected to win by the rugby margin equivalent of the width of the Pacific.

TEAMS

South Africa: Willie le Roux, Grant Williams, Canan Moodie, Andre Esterhuizen, Makazole Mapimpi, Damian Willemse, Cobus Reinach, Duane Vermeulen, Kwagga Smith, Marco van Staden, Marvin Orie, Jean Kleyn, Vincent Koch, Bongi Mbonambi (captain), Ox Nche. Replacements: Deon Fourie, Steven Kitshoff, Trevor Nyakane, RG Snyman, Jasper Wiese, Jaden Hendrikse, Faf de Klerk, Jesse Kriel.

Romania: Team to be confirmed.

Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)

Kick-off: 3pm Sunday

Prediction: Springboks to win by at least 60.