Right, I’ll be off. Here’s a match report. We’ll be back tomorrow when there are three fixxtures on what may well become known as Randomly Big Wednesday. Bye!
Vital information dept: here are the latest pool tables:
Tyler Ardron, the Canada captain, has a chat:
Yeah, it was very tough. We could hardly get our hands on the ball in that first 30 minutes. When they had it they did some damage. But I feel we really grew into the game and in the last 50 we put a better performance up. It’s never helpful to get a red card. We’d have rather had 15 out there but we pulled together. Namibia is hugely important. It’s a game we’ve really targeted and we want to put our best performance out and we really hope to get a result out of that.
This throw-your-phone-at-a-rugby-player thing seems extremely risky to me.
Captain selfies featuring @siyakolisi1 and @tyardron #RSAvCAN #RWC2019 pic.twitter.com/EEMMnYDCtl
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 8, 2019
Some rugby-related reading for you while you wait for the match report:
South Africa will give their players a couple of days off, with the best part of a fortnight to go until their quarter-final. Unless New Zealand fail to beat Italy they will play the winners of Pool A, currently Japan but potentially Ireland, in Chofu on 20 October.
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So South Africa qualify from Pool B. They will be joined by Italy, so long as they comfortably beat New Zealand on Saturday, or the All Blacks if they don’t. So New Zealand, basically.
Final score: South Africa 66-7 Canada
81 mins: No, they can’t. Still, they’re in the quarter-finals. Canada lost this game in the first 15 minutes, but end the game in a certain amount of credit after a much improved second period.
80 mins: The gong sounds. South Africa have the ball. Is there one more try in them?
79 mins: Chance for Canada! But Van der Merwe fumbles! Shane O’Leary’s excellent floated pass left them with three on one on the left flank, but they couldn’t hold onto it!
78 mins: The teams take a couple of minutes over a lineout. “Come on lads,” pleads the referee.
TRY! It's No10! South Africa 66-7 Canada!
74 mins: The ball is passed to Frans Malherbe, and he’s too powerful, bulldozing between Hearn and Heaton and reaching out to bring the ball down over the line. Jantjies narrowly misses the conversion.
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72 mins: Kolisi is brought down a foot from the line. Canada have continued their improvement since half-time, but they are creaking.
68 mins: Three fumbles and knock-ons in about five seconds end with the ball out of play for a Canada line-out.
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TRY! And converted! South Africa 61-7 Canada!
67 mins: Damian Willemse completes his arrival in the World Cup by touching down on the left, after Canada overcommitted in the centre leaving two green shirts in about 30 yards of empty space.
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64 mins: For the first time, South Africa see what they can do in a maul. Thirty seconds later, after a lovely offload from Nkosi, they nearly touch down in the far right only for Hassler to get in the way.
59 mins: Brits is hobbling now, and that’s the end of his game. It looks like he might have pulled a calf muscle, within moments of the restart after his try. If so, that’s the end of the 38-year-old’s World Cup.
TRY! And converted! South Africa 54-7 Canada!
55 mins: Excellent stuff from Schalk Brits, who shows nimbleness, acceleration and strength to jink through a tiny gap and then, with several Canadians hanging off him, force himself over the line!
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54 mins: Jantjies nearly gets to the line, but after he’s brought down the ball is passed left where Mostert fumbles, and Hassler intercepts and helps Canada escape.
51 mins: South Africa nearly get another! Geland stops the ball going out with his foot, and it pops up nicely into his arms allowing him to head to the line, but he’s taken down a couple of yards short!
50 mins: I don’t know what Kingsley Jones said at half-time, but he should probably have said it before the game started.
49 mins: There’s a heart-in-mouth moment as the referee checks whether Ciaran Hearn was obstructing. He wasn’t. Or rather, he was, but not deliberately.
TRY! And converted! South Africa 47-7 Canada!
47 mins: They’ve only gone and scored a try! Hassler comes close but doesn’t quite make it. Matt Heaton picks it up, and does!
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46 mins: South Africa steal the ball, give it away, steal it back and give it away. The pressure remains on.
45 mins: For a couple of minutes the ball stays within 10 yards of South Africa’s line. Canada push and probe, but they can’t get within reach of their target.
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44 mins: Unexpectedly, the half starts with Canada on the front foot.
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41 mins: Peeeeep! They’re off! Again!
The player are back out. Can Canada stem the Sprinbok tide? Can South Africa break a few records? Time will tell!
South Africa’s possession had dropped to only 78% by half-time. Reinach has scored the fastest hat-trick in World Cup history.
Half time: South Africa 47-0 Canada
And that’s the last action of the first half. It has been extraordinarily one-sided. Here’s the red card incident in full:
'I'm sure you're aware of the current climate'
— ITV Rugby (@ITVRugby) October 8, 2019
40-0 down and now a man down. Canada's Larsen is shown a red card for an illegal shoulder charge
Agree?#RWC2019 #ITVRugby pic.twitter.com/9qoYYW1hUa
TRY! And converted! South Africa 47-0 Canada!
41 mins: Horrible! Phil Mack has the ball 10 yards from his own tryline. He assesses his options and then passes straight to Francois Steyn, who has a clear path to the tryline! Jantjies nails another impressive conversion.
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39 mins: South Africa threaten again, but with a try looking increasingly inevitable Kwagga Smith fumbles.
RED CARD! Canada's day gets even worse!
36 mins: After lengthy examination of a multitude of replays, the referee decides that Larsen hit Du Toit at neck height, without any obvious justification. He’s off!
37 mins: The referee is looking back at Josh Larsen’s arrival in a ruck, which is high and wild. He looks to be in trouble, precisely how much trouble depending on exactly where he made contact with Thomas du Toit.
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36 mins: Play restarts with a five-yard scrum and Canada continue to push, but they can’t quite reach the line! Then Peter Nelson’s kick is charged down.
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34 mins: They nearly score an actual try! It’s a long crossfield kick from right to left that finds Van der Merwe, who need only catch it and ground it! He does neither. In fact it looks like Willemse, leaping one-handed, got his fingertips to it, making an easy catch extremely difficult.
33 mins: Canada have the ball for a bit! Phil Mack runs down the right and then passes to Jeff Hassler! The crowd goes wild!
32 mins: The all-time World Cup winning margin is the still distant 142-0, racked up by New Zealand against Namibia in 2003.
Converted! South Africa 40-0 Canada!
30 mins: That’s a fine conversion, and also a relatively quick one.
TRY! South Africa 38-0 Canada
29 mins: Warrick Gelant touches down on the far right corner. South Africa have had 94% of possession so far. Ninety-four percent!
28 mins: For reference, South Africa’s biggest World Cup win was 87-0, over Namibia in 2011.
25 mins: Whatever Canada’s pre-match plans were, they’ve been ripped up, burned and eaten by a goat. All they have left is wild panic.
Converted! South Africa 33-0 Canada
22 mins: The scoreboard operators are certainly being kept busy.
TRY! South Africa 31-0 Canada!
20 mins: This all comes from a brilliant crossfield kick from Jantjies which releases Gelant on the right. He sprints 50 yards before passing inside to De Allende, who moves it on to Reinach, who can’t be caught!
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Converted! South Africa 26-0 Canada!
20 mins: Another two points on the board. For so long as it takes four Canadians to bring down Snyman, they’re going to be in trouble.
TRY! South Africa 24-0 Canada!
18 mins: Less than halfway through the 18th minute of the game, South Africa secure the bonus point! It’s like a medley of two of the Sprinboks’ previous tries, as another Snyman burst rips through Canada, and Reinach dives over.
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17 mins: Obviously there’s no coming back from this, but Canada have at least had a few minutes of relative sanity. Still, Canada have the ball and have a penalty advantage.
Converted! South Africa 19-0 Canada!
12 mins: Jantjies is warned by the referee about how long he’s taking over the conversion, which he then sends betwixt the posts.
Sensational try! South Africa 17-0 Canada!
10 mins: This could get pretty ugly. From a ruck inside his own half Cobus Reinach plucks the ball off the ground, feints left and then sprints straight ahead. He zips into space, dinks a kick over the final red shirt, runs onto it, collects and screams to the line! That’s a fantastic try!
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8 mins: Elton Jantjies shanks his conversion attempt, which was as hard as a conversion attempt will ever be for a left-footer, wide.
TRY! South Africa 12-0 Canada!
6 mins: Sibusiso Nkosi sprints down the left-hand touchline, so wide he’s got chalk on his boots, and there’s no stopping him!
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TRY! And converted! South Africa 7-0 Canada
3 mins: A horrible start for Canada! Their defence is riddled with holes already, and Damian de Allende dances through one of them!
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2 mins: RG Snyman bursts through the Canadian defence, and bulldozes to within a yard of the line!
1 min: They’re off!
The anthems have been sung, and all preliminaries completed. Hold on to your hats!
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And they’re out! Canada’s captain, Tyler Ardron, is clutching a cuddly toy, like a nervous schoolboy on his way into the exam hall.
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Action in Kobe! The players are gathering
near the dressing-room doors, preparing for exit.
I find this man’s hat really quite scary:
According to various news outlets this morning, England’s game against France is under threat because of Typhoon Hagibis. If of all pool stage games the weather chooses to nix one between two teams that have already qualified for the quarter-finals, it has done rather well.
Looks like Canada have won the toss, and will kick off.
🇨🇦 won toss
— Springboks (@Springboks) October 8, 2019
👟 chose to kick off
💻 Follow the action right here ➡️ https://t.co/OLNEASnscW#StrongerTogether #RWC2019 #RSAvCAN pic.twitter.com/cFePBMhQRb
Hello world!
South Africa aren’t officially through to the quarter-finals, but they’re very close. The only team that could stop them, Italy, need to beat New Zealand to do so, but a bonus-point victory over pointless Canada, who have lost their two games so far by an aggregate score of 111-7, would end even that slender possibility. The Springboks’ only significant enemy would appear to be complacency, though Rassie Erasmus’s tough talking should deal with that: “If these players don’t step up then they will fail to stay in the team,” he raged, pre-match. “They know that and it will be one of the challenges for them.”
Canada’s assistant coach, Huw Wiltshire, says the Sprinboks and the All Blacks are the best teams in the tournament. “Two things you can’t defend against in rugby are speed and power, and both those countries have got it across their teams, across the park and across their whole squads,” he added, in what sounded very much like a verbal raising of a metaphorical white flag.
Thirteen changes for South Africa, six for Canada, these are today’s teams. And welcome!
South Africa: 15-Damian Willemse, 14-Warrick Gelant, 13-Damian de Allende, 12-Francois Steyn, 11-Sbu Nkosi, 10-Elton Jantjies, 9-Cobus Reinach, 8-Francois Louw, 7-Kwagga Smith, 6-Siya Kolisi (captain), 5-Franco Mostert, 4-RG Snyman, 3-Vincent Koch, 2-Schalk Brits, 1-Thomas Du Toit.
Replacements: 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 (captain), 7-Matt Heaton, 6-Lucas Rumball, 5-Kyle Baillie, 4-Evan Olmstead, 3-Jake Ilnicki, 2-Andrew Quattrin, 1-Hubert Buydens.
Replacements: 16-Benoit Piffero, 17-Djustice Sears-Duru, 18-Matt Tierney, 19-Josh Larsen, 20-Michael Sheppard, 21-Jamie Mackenzie, 22-Shane O’Leary, 23-Guiseppe du Toit.
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