Bok Brutality, Fiji Fire Back, & Other Takeaways from Rugby World Cup Round 2

The second Round of the Rugby World Cup pool stages proved to be a mix of expected results and some surprising outcomes, with in-form teams continuing their runs while smaller sides raised their hands to the rugby world. 

We’ve highlighted some of the key takeaways from this past weekend’s action

Bok backline sharpening its sword

Yes, it was against Romania, and the Springbok backline had a field-day against their opposition. But, with that said, the occasion did give the Boks an opportunity to test their ball skills further and find some new combos which seemed to work excellently. The playmaking axis of Cobus Reinach and Damian Willemse proved to be a lethal combination, as both players pose an attacking threat themselves, forcing defenders to remain stacked towards them. This opened up a lot of space in the outfield for the likes of Willie le Roux, Canan Moodie, and Makazole Mapimpi to run rampant.

Reinach and Willemse further proved that having speed and agility in the 9 and 10 positions could cause a lot of trouble for defenders. Faf de Klerk coming on in the flyhalf position was also an interesting injection, and while we didn’t do too much, his midfield distribution is incredibly accurate and allowed the outside backs even more time on the ball.

Skeptics that say that the Boks have no depth at flyhalf aren’t paying attention.

Japan mixing it up

While Japan didn’t manage to trump England, there were some brilliant passages of play from Jamie Joseph’s men. Fullback Kitaro Matsushima was immense and scrumhalf Yutaka Nagare were sublime, with the two operating in tandem to produce some pinpoint attacking kicks (whether in the air or on the ground) to turn England around and put their players on the backfoot. Topped off with some fantastic goal-line defence to stop England from scoring numerous times, this Japan side is building something special.

Fiji fire back

Easily the story of the weekend, Fiji’s historic win over Australia highlighted that Fiji’s excellent performance in the opening round against Wales was no fluke. They’re fast, skillful, and have now added solid set-pieces to their game. Fiji made sure that they didn’t make the same mistake twice, and the island side has added some serious intrigue to their pool, now applying some massive pressure on Australia to do a number on Wales – which may not be an easy task.

Portugal bring the heat

The Tier 2 nations are standing tall at this Rugby World Cup, and Portugal’s effort against Wales has to be commended. While they didn’t finish many of their try-scoring opportunities, the Portuguese played an incredibly entertaining brand of rugby, using a lot of width on the field, great footwork, and focusing on continuity with offloads aplenty. There are some future superstars in that Portugal side.

Uruguy’s game against France needs to be highlighted too, as the South Americans were putting the hosts under some serious pressure for a majority of the match. It may not be at this World Cup, but expect some upsets in the coming years as the complacency of some of the bigger teams comes back to bite them.

Ireland still a well-oiled machine

Having not seen the real Ireland in their opening encounter against Romania, we finally got a glimpse of what the number one team in the world could do when they took on Tonga. Tonga’s defence was a little unorganised, but Ireland made short work of them with powerful forward runners and a slick attacking shape orchestrated by Jonny Sexton and Bundee Aki. Tonga did have some good moments, but this match once again proved that to beat Ireland, you have to shut them down using an aggressive blitz defence. The match between Ireland and the Boks can’t come soon enough.

Photo cred: Facebook / Springboks / World Rugby