Rugby World Cup: South Africa dismantle Fiji clinically

South Africa took Fiji apart in a clinical performance at the rugby World Cup on Saturday, running in six tries to earn a 49-3 victory in their Pool D match at the Wellington Regional Stadium.

The South Africans had tackled themselves to a standstill last week against Wales on the way to a 17-16 win and assistant coach Gary Gold had said that he did not want to endure a similar performance against Fiji.

On Saturday, the players took heed of Gold's advice to dominate the breakdown and provided scrum-half Fourie du Preez superb quality balls to free his hard running backline and seize scoring opportunities when they arose.

"Fiji dominated the first 20 minutes and we missed five or six tackles that gave them momentum in the game," Springboks coach Peter de Villiers told reporters.

"We can't allow that going forward. We pride ourselves on our defence and it worked pretty well in our favour, but we must be ruthless on defence."

Fly-half Morne Steyn scored 21 points through a try, five conversions and two penalties as the Springboks grabbed a bonus point and went top of the 'Pool of Death' that also includes Wales, Samoa and Namibia.

After fly-half Steyn surprisingly missed an early penalty attempt, inside centre Frans Steyn opened the scoring with a mammoth penalty from eight metres inside his own half.

Fiji inside centre Seremaia Bai equalised 10 minutes later after the Springboks were caught offside at the ruck following a sustained period of attack.

The South Africans, however, turned the momentum of the match with an eight-minute period when they dominated the breakdown, recycled the ball quickly, and scored 15 points with tries from loosehead prop Gurthro Steenkamp and centre Jaque Fourie.

Morne Steyn converted Steenkamp's try and added a penalty as the Springboks went out to a comfortable 18-3 lead, which Steyn extended by three more points on the stroke of half-time.

Fiji again tried to play an up-tempo style after the break, but once Frans Steyn gathered a chip kick from openside flanker Heinrich Brussow to score in the corner nine minutes into the second half, the game effectively ended as a contest.

Morne Steyn scored his fifth international try when he finished off another clinical attack inside the Fijian 22m area, while replacement prop Tendai Mtawarira scored his first Test try, and Man of the Match Danie Rossouw crossed for a well-deserved late score.

Fijian winger Naipolioni Nalaga had two tries ruled out, the first for a forward pass and the second when he dropped the ball while diving over the line.

"I think this week, South Africa were there and ready to play," Fiji captain Deacon Manu said. "They used their tactics accordingly. They were firing on all cylinders today and that was tough to combat."