Cobus Reinach scored a hattrick inside the opening quarter as the Springboks thrashed Canada 66-7 in their Pool B clash at the Misaki Park Stadium on Tuesday.
Having dispatched Italy 49-3 last Friday, and with the All Blacks expected to claim a comfortable win over the Azzurri themselves on Saturday, the midweek victory sealed second spot in the pool for the Boks.
They will wait on the final results from Pool A to see who they will play in the quarterfinals.
While they did make the most of their opportunities on the day, the Boks were helped in large part by an extremely passive and disjointed Canada defence.
The speed at which Reinach scored his three tries was testament to just how dominant the men from the Republic were, with the second – a brilliant chip and chase effort – certainly the pick of the lot.
With five-minutes left in the first-half, Canadian substitute Josh Larsen became the second player in just four days to be red carded against the Boks for a mindless clearout on Thomas du Toit.
With the score reading 40-0 at that stage, that incident only served as another hammer blow to his already vanquished team.
Early tries to Damian de Allende, Sbu Nkosi and Warrick Gelant, plus Reinach’s three, had seen the Boks effectively end the contest before it even started.
Following the ejection of Larson, Frans Steyn grabbed his 11th-Test try and first at a World Cup when he intercepted right on the opposition tryline as Siya Kolisi’s men headed for the shed 47-0 to the good.
South Africa took their feet off the accelerator in the second-half. Matt Heaton dotted down to ensure his side weren’t blanked, but Schalk Brits, playing in what may prove to be his final professional game of rugby, hit back soon after.
Damian Willemse and Frans Malherbe banked their first international tries thereafter to complete the rout.
Scores
South Africa – 66
Tries: de Allende, Nkosi, Reinach (3), Gelant, Steyn, Brits, Willemse, Malherbe
Cons: Jantjies (8)
Canada – 7
Tries: Heaton
Cons: Nelson
Red card: Josh Larsen
Springboks – 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Warrick Gelant, 13 Damian de Allende, 12 Frans Steyn, 11 S’bu Nkosi, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Francois Louw, 7 Kwagga Smith, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 RG Snyman, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 Thomas du Toit.
Subs: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Frans Malherbe, 19 Eben Etzebeth, 20 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Handre Pollard, 23 Willie le Roux.
Canada – 15 Andrew Coe, 14 Jeff Hassler, 13 Conor Trainor, 12 Ciaran Hearn, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 10 Peter Nelson, 9 Phil Mack, 8 Tyler Ardron (c), 7 Matt Heaton, 6 Lucas Rumball, 5 Kyle Baillie, 4 Evan Olmstead, 3 Jake Ilnicki, 2 Andrew Quattrin, 1 Hubert Buydens.
Subs: 16 Benoit Piffero, 17 Djustice Sears-Duru, 18 Matthew Tierney, 19 Josh Larsen, 20 Mike Sheppard, 21 Jamie Mackenzie, 22 Shane O’Leary, 23 Guiseppe du Toit.
Written by Shaun Goosen for Hollywoodbets
