Scotland’s Romania rout adds pressure on Boks for points against Tonga

The pressure on the Springboks has gone up a notch after Scotland did what most expected of them — a rout of Romania to keep up their spirits and prospects for quarterfinal qualification at the Rugby World Cup.

Scotland thumped Romania 84-0 in Lille on Saturday night to maintain their say in pool B of the competition and they can now set their sights on Ireland in a clash that will determine the pecking in Paris next Saturday.

The Boks, who beat Scotland on the opening weekend of the tournament, now have to beat Tonga at Stade Velodrome on Sunday by a bonus point to avert potential disaster.

Should Scotland beat Ireland next weekend and deny them a bonus point, they will go through along with the Springboks to the quarterfinals and not their neighbours from across the Irish Sea.

Matters can, of course, get a lot more complicated.

Should the Springboks beat Tonga by a bonus point on Sunday and Scotland beat Ireland with both teams earning a bonus point, pool B will have three teams with 15 log points.

The first criteria that is applied to separate tied teams is the result between them. In this case the three teams would not be separated as each won and lost a match against the other two. The team with the superior points difference will then advance and as things stand both Ireland (+122) and Scotland (+97) have a better points difference than the Springboks (+86).

The Boks, of course, will have the opportunity to improve that significantly against Tonga on Sunday. Though thousands of fans clad in green and gold have descended on Marseille, the Boks are likely to face a crowd very much in Tonga's corner at the Stade Vélodrome.

The people of this south very much back the underdog and they will be behind Tonga in the same enthusiastic way the people of Bordeaux put their voices behind Romania at Stade Matmut Atlantique two weeks ago.

Bok fans, however, have been clearing and lubricating their throats around Marseille's best known tourist hotspot, Vieux Port.

Around the horseshoe-shaped port hotels, restaurants and bars line the streets with throngs of rugby fans, other tourists and locals making for a cultural melting pot perhaps on par with Marseille's best-known fish dish, bouillabaisse.

Apart from Bok fans winging their way from South Africa, many more have descended on Provence from other parts of Europe.

Tonga assistant coach Dan Cron knows there won't be as many Tongans as South Africans in the Stade Vélodrome but he and the team are drawing inspiration from one of sport's great virtues — it's unpredictability.

“Sport’s riddled with underdog stories, so you take confidence and inspiration from that. For us we’re just going out to do the absolute best that we can and to do our friends, families and supporters proud on Sunday.”