South Africa vs Romania Predictions - Boks to cruise past poor Romania

The handicap is set at 69 points and while Romania will struggle to break the Springbok defence, I’m not sure the men in green will be running in tries like the Irish did. I’m backing Romania to lose by under 69 points.

South Africa and Romania have only met once before and that was way back during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. South Africa won that match 21-8 at Newlands.

South Africa are starting to look like the side that won the Rugby World Cup in 2019. They have been quite inconsistent since that triumph but seem to have found some form recently.

During the warm-up games, the Springboks beat Argentina away and then thrashed Wales and New Zealand. In their opening game this past weekend South Africa beat Scotland 18-3 to put themselves in a strong position in Pool B.

The match was tight for the first half although South Africa were dominant. They didn’t give the Scotland attack any time to breathe, which resulted in two second-half tries.

South Africa will no doubt make 10+ changes for this clash. They face Ireland after this so they will not want key players to be injured.

Romania were the one tier-two side to disappoint this past weekend. Strangely enough, a year or two ago Romania were the talk of the town as they competed, and almost beat a full-strength Argentine side.

However, things have gone backward fast for them over the last 12-18 months. While qualifying for the World Cup, they lost by 50 points to Georgia and Italy. They also suffered a defeat to USA who did not qualify for this year’s tournament.

In their opening Rugby World Cup clash Romania threw an early punch against Ireland with a superb try, but thereafter fell to pieces, losing the game 82-8. It was a very strong Ireland side though so the Europeans may fancy being more competitive against a weakened South Africa.

Romania’s target at this World Cup will be their game against Tonga. However, I don’t think they will rest many players for this clash given that they’ve had a week break.