The Springboks scored six tries against Fiji to record a superb 49-3 win in their group D World Cup match in Wellington.
Frans Steyn was responsible for getting the Boks first three points with a massive penalty kick in the 11th minute. Fiji centre Seremaia Baikeinuku made it 3-3 just a few minutes later.
Then the floodgates opened with Gurthro Steenkamp, Jacque Fourie, Frans Steyn, Morne Steyn, Tendai Mtawarira and Danie Russouw all touching down for South Africa in both halves.
Naipolioni Nalaga’s two attempts at tries for Fiji were disallowed. The first one was ruled a forward pass. The TMO ruled the ball was lost as the Fijian went over the line, as a result of some excellent defending from JP Pietersen.
Rossouw was named as man of the match after winning his first cap as No 5 lock with the responsibility for calling the lineouts.
He received much praise from his coach Peter de Villiers. “I think how Danie Rossouw played comes down to our structures,” he said. “He fitted in and chose the right lines when he ran the ball. He is an old man with a new revitalised engine – I’m very pleased with Danie”.
“I said to him beforehand that having played 8, 7 and 4 and now 5 his biggest challenge would be running the right lines and being in the right place defensively but he did that very well and for him to fit in like that I take my hat off to him,” said De Villiers.
Fiji took charge for the first 20 minutes with the Boks missing five or six tackles, something De Villiers will focus on more for the Boks’ upcoming games.
“We pride ourselves on our defence and we got it together pretty well after that but we must be ruthless on defence. There are a few things that we need to work on, but if you look at how we broke down their defensive wall with our direct play and created space out wide to score tries, it wasn’t too bad. We ticked most of the boxes,” said De Villiers.
This game, however, saw a more convincing performance from the defending world champions as compared to their opening match against Wales in which they struggled for a victory by a point.
Skipper John Smit said the team’s intention is to get better every week and was happy with a better performance from his men.
“We really did control the game – both when we had the ball and when we didn’t have the ball. It was a much better all-round performance. We took control of the game and we kept the ball a lot more than we normally do because of the tactics we wanted to employ against Fiji. We got closer to playing how we had prepared,” Smit said.
The captain played down suggestions that the Boks have made a breakthrough. “It’s a bit too early to talk about who is laying down a marker – it‘s week two – not really when you win a world cup.”
“It was a better performance but I don’t know if I’d call it a breakthrough. It was a game we wanted to do well in against one of the tougher teams in the pool and it’s certainly a step in the right direction – and a good stepping stone to where we need to go. Last week, we had a couple of guys playing really well and this week we had a couple more,” said Smit.
On the subject of Fiji’s tactics, De Villiers added, “We didn’t play an expansive game we played the situation. We saw them with four players back covering the kicks and you could see that Fiji came to counter attack us. We kept hold of the ball and bundled them up in the middle and it worked much better for us”.
The Boks will take on Namibia in their next clash. – Kemantha Govender, BuaNews
