Don’t get too confident, Boks

Even as we bask in the rosy glow of the Springboks’ emphatic 76-0 thumping of Romania yesterday at the Rugby World Cup (RWC), we’re sorry to have to inject a little note of caution into proceedings: let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

There were many positives to the match. Even though it was against one of the minnows in world rugby (mind you, minnows with a 118kg wing), the Boks produced some champagne rugby, with most phases of the game looking polished. And was this even the “second string”?

We don’t think there’s any such thing these days in South African rugby… The winning margin was higher than that achieved by Ireland against Romania and, let’s not forget, the Romanians breached the Ireland try line – something they didn’t manage to achieve against us.

Our defence has been the rock on which many fancied RWC opponents have floundered in the past (yes, we’re looking at you, England) and it’s encouraging to see it is still in good, working order. But Ireland and the others in the tournament will be much tougher opponents and there are aspects of our game, such as goal kicking, which will let us down if not sorted out promptly.

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