Springboks plot their now Marx-less path to World Cup glory under state-like security

In Bordeaux

• The Springboks will have to put aside a difficult week from an injury perspective and make sure the Romania game in Bordeaux on Sunday, which can be considered a molehill, doesn't become a mountain.
• The Boks are shrugging off losing Malcolm Marx to a tournament-ending injury on Thursday and has necessitated the use of flankers Deon Fourie and Marco van Staden as hookers.
• Security at Springbok training sessions remain state-like, with assistant coach defending the strict arrangement because "it's the World Cup".
• For more sports news, please visit News24 Sport's front page.

The Springboks are giving Sunday's second Pool B game against Romania at the Stade de Bordeaux the same level of gravity and respect they'd accord to any other opponent.

The sides meet for the first time since a surprisingly doughty tussle at Newlands in the 1995 World Cup and the Boks evidently didn't want any form of intelligence leaking as they kept their training sessions closed, the grounds being cordoned off from prying eyes.

Such is the level of security that it felt like the Boks are hosting a high-level diplomatic meeting, with the press corps only allowed on the field just before the players come on for their 15-minute vision session.

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They don't even allow the media access to the facility where the team bus comes in.

This has, understandably, been the case throughout with the Boks, even at the Toulon Rugby Club campus, where a green mesh sheet is pinned to the ground's perimeter fencing.

At the Stade Andre Moga - French Top14 side Bordeaux Begles' training base 15 minutes south of the city's central business district - the Boks continued true to form, white plastic sheeting covering potentially visible spots at the ground.

They were unable to have a captain's run at the Stade Matmut Atlantique, which is the trading name for the Stade de Bordeaux, because of the Chile-Samoa game on Saturday afternoon.

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Nonetheless, they still had a lush surface to run on and top-class security to look after them, the pitch handsomely watered by healthy overnight rain.

In Toulon, the Boks are also protected by the tall stands at the Stade Mayol and it's become abundantly clear that charting a path to the pot of gold at the end of the Webb Ellis trophy-tinted rainbow requires trade secrets to be safely stashed away.

When Springbok assistant coach Mzwandile Stick was asked why they kept their training proceedings under wraps, he was unequivocal in his response.

"It's the World Cup," Stick exclaimed.

"It's the World Cup and it's the biggest rugby tournament you can be part of, and, to be fair, our sessions are mostly private.

"We did have one very good public training session in Toulon where we had just over 8000 people watching.

"We appreciated their support but we're playing in the World Cup and it's the biggest tournament we can ever play in.

"We're private because it's the World Cup."

Captained by Bongi Mbonambi this weekend, the South Africans are still coming to terms with the injury-enforced loss earlier this week of Malcolm Marx, who was invalidated out of the World Cup with a freak knee injury he sustained at Wednesday afternoon's training session.

The Boks haven't named a replacement - Handre Pollard is slated to be confirmed as the official candidate - but where do they start replacing a player of Marx's stature, even though they have the broad-shouldered Mbonambi to rely on as a main hooker.

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Winger Makazole Mapimpi, who will be getting his first outing of the 2023 World Cup, echoed the widespread sentiment that Marx's loss was a huge one.

However, he added they needed to find a way to fill that void.

"Malcolm Marx is a beast," Mapimpi said.

"He's one of the best guys in his position in the world and look, he was on form. He played well in the Rugby Championship.

"It's quite tough for us as a team to lose him because he's one of our best players. I feel sorry for him because he was doing very well.

"I'm pretty sure he was going to do more in the World Cup, so I really feel sorry for him."

In a tough Pool B that the Boks find themselves in, the number of points they put past Romania will matter greatly in the bigger scheme of things, particularly if differentials become the chosen mode of determining who goes through to the knock-outs.

Ireland, who played Tonga in the late Saturday evening game in Nantes, put 82 points past Romania last week to put themselves in the pound seats.

The Boks outmuscled Scotland 18-3, but they would do well to win convincingly to keep their quarter-final destiny in their own hands.

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Stick said they weren't too worried about the Ireland game as the Romania fixture, their first against the Eastern European nation since their World Cup meeting in Cape Town in 1995, presents its own unique challenge.

"Every game is a big challenge, and we try our best not to look too far ahead of ourselves," Stick said.

"The energy levels in training were amazing and everyone is invested in the challenge that is Romania and we're also playing in an early kick-off.

"It'll give us enough time to check on Ireland, but also, we're aware that's the last thing on our mind.

"We need to make sure we do what we need to do in this game and it's going to be tough. I played against Romania in 2010 and it wasn't easy.

"The discipline in the game will also be key because in the last game we played, we only conceded seven penalties, which is a very good stat."