Bok coach rubbishes any early focus on Ireland because of Romanian stroll: 'It's disrespectful'

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber poured cold water on any thoughts that he and his troops were keeping tabs on Ireland while concurrently focusing on dealing with Sunday's less strenuous assignment against Romania in Bordeaux.

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The comprehensive 76-0 scoreline - naturally suggesting a mismatch in playing resources - indeed attested to that as a much-changed, somewhat experimental combination dealt with the task at hand as they should've, in the process avoiding any "disrespect" to their opponents and themselves.

Still, it wasn't exactly surprising that attention almost immediately shifted to Saturday's key Pool B showdown in Paris as the match will go a long way towards determining who emerges from a tough group to take up their place in the knockouts.

Not that Nienaber was having any of it. 

"I'll be 100% honest. I watched the game, but I didn't do so from an analytical point of view," he said.

"It was about focusing on today's match and granting the Romanians the respect they deserved. It was also a matter of not disrespecting the players that played [in this match]. We can't focus on Ireland when they still had to play this game.

"We went into this match with the mindset that the relevant players needed to be as well prepared to perform in this game as they could, in order for them to stake a claim for next week. 

"So, yes, I watched, scanned them. But the analysis will start [on Monday]."

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Remaining on the theme of showing the appropriate level of respect, team management also believe over-emphasising the big battle in Saint-Denis is condescending towards