South Africa have flexed their considerable rugby muscle with a dominant performance in tonight’s 72 – 6 victory over Uruguay.
South Africa scored 12 tries in a showing which would have answered a number of their critics who claimed before the Tournament they had a problem scoring tries. Included in that total were three tries to stand in captain Joost van der Westhuizen.
The game was just two minutes old when van der Westhuizen crossed for his side’s first try after Joe Van Niekerk had made the initial break from the base of the scrum.
His second came when he picked up the ball after Willemse had slalomed through the Los Teros defence. The hat trick was completed in the 58th minute when he dived over from close range.
Bokkies gets a double
Big lock Bakkies Botha also grabbed a double with a try in each half.
The Uruguay side mounted something of a resurgence in the middle of the first half as they held out the South Africans and scored two penalty goals of their own through skipper Diego Aguirre.
The crowd roared when Diego Aguirre landed his first penalty for Uruguay on 21 minutes and just four minutes later he did the same to take the score to 19-6 to South Africa.
Sadly, it would be their last for the night.
The Uruguayan defence was resilient for the first ten minutes of the second half until Springbok prop Richard Bands took the ball from the lineout and ran 10 metres to score.
Crunch game
Uruguay to their credit battled all match. They will however need to regroup before their match on Wednesday 15 October against Samoa, while South Africa play England next Saturday night at Subiaco in the crunch game for the pool.
South Africa 72
Tries: van der Westhuizen 3, Botha 2, Van Niekerk, Fourie, Bands, Delport, Rossouw, Scholtz, Greeff
Con: Koen 5, Hougaard
defeated
Uruguay 6
Pen: D. Aguirre 2