Rugby World Cup Pool B: Scotland 84-0 Romania

Rory watches as Scotland put Romania to the sword in their third of four Pool B matches in the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

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Predictably, this was the full-tilt boogie from Scotland and although we don’t often accept the tag of favourites well – witness how the second string have come unstuck on summer tours past – Scotland did exactly what they needed to against Romania in Lille over the weekend.

There was a need for the level to stay high from the win over Tonga, and the only way this much-changed team could do it would be with a top performance.

With no early inclination to kick much of anything away to the men in yellow, Hamish Watson announced his return to form in only his second World Cup test cap with an early try from a lovely Cam Redpath offload. So far, so good.

Ali Price scored the second soon afterwards with Darcy Graham selflessly passing to his scrum-half rather than going for personal glory in the hunt to overtake Stuart Hogg’s Scotland try-scoring record. It was a strike move from the setpiece, and while their attack had looked stifled against South Africa, in Lille it was suddenly unleashed with supreme accuracy.

Graham got his own chance minutes later as Price returned the favour, finding him cutting a lovely inside line close to the ruck and the new King of Hawick (sorry Hoggy) was not to be stopped as he carved in behind the Romanian backline.

The bonus point was secured long before half-time with well-worked play by Chris Harris putting Graham over in the corner for his second.

By that point, hapless Romania already had two men in the sin-bin with one under a Bunker review. By the time Scotland’s fifth try came from Matt Fagerson at close range, Ollie Smith had been whacked high the phase before and they’d soon clocked up a third yellow for that, making it three cards in 9 minutes.

Scotland had gone close two or three times in the minutes preceding, and when Graham secured his hat-trick bang on 40 minutes, the challenge quickly became to try and rack up as much in the way of points difference as they could in order to gain ground on Ireland and South Africa who had both put around 80 on the Mighty Oaks previously.

For now, they were on target.

Half-time: Scotland 42-0 Romania

Chris Harris may be a little out of favour at the moment but he partnered with Cam Redpath well in this game, and showed up more than once spearheading the attack. A pinpoint kick pass from Ben Healy picked out Redpath who was able to hold his tackler off with one hand long enough to pop the ball to Harris as he scampered past for the tryline.

By the 50 minute mark, Romania were somewhat surprisingly restored to a team of 15 vs 15. Referee Wayne Barnes kept the game flowing well and dealt with whatever was flagged but as with the Tonga and South Africa games, Scotland gained no long term advantage from these dangerous tackles on their players after they were sent off to Le Bunker for review.

After a patchy period of Scottish pressure during which they were unable to get over the line as easily as they had previously – Jamie Bhatti knocked on over the line while Darcy was probably denied his fourth, fifth and sixth tries by stout defending – Romania threatened to break out from their own line.

Their counter-attack fizzled when they hoofed it into space, then it fully deflated when Ollie Smith ran it back past their whole team to score. Tackled short of the line, he had the nous to release the ball and then regather it to pop over for the score.

Ben Healy was well rewarded with his own try that was well worked, again with George Horne and Graham instrumental in giving him space on the ball but he still had to beat a couple of defenders to dive over.

At 63-0 by the hour mark Scotland were keeping to point a minute pace but there followed a period of Romanian possession where it looked like they might even get a score to chip away at that Scottish total.

Would Scotland stutter at this late stage?

Normal service was resumed when Blair Kinghorn proved he had too much pace for tiring legs on the 70-minute mark and quick and selfless passing between the leggy replacement fullback and a flying Horne gave Johnny Matthews an unpposed canter in on his first cap.

Matthews then set up Rory Darge for the 11th try and the final try, fittingly, went to Darcy Graham sniping close to a ruck under the posts.

The passing was crisp, the running lines excellent. As confidence boosters for Scotland’s attack go this will do nicely, but Scotland will categorically not be allowed to play like this by Ireland next weekend, unless Andy Farrell is tired of French food already or they fancy the sole Scotland + Ireland permutation on Kev’s chart you can see above…

SRBlog Player of the Match: Ben Healy came impressively on to his game after a shaky start and was nerveless with the boot, while it was marvellous to see Hamish Watson fight his way back into consideration for the 23 to face Ireland. Darcy Graham was the standout player on the park by some distance though. He’ll have far more difficult outings in a Scotland shirt, but possibly none more fun.

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