South Africa silenced the doubters with a comprehensive 49-3 win over Fiji in Wellington on Saturday.
The Sprinboks sounded a warning to the rest of the tournament with an impressive display against a Fijian side who tried hard but could not penetrate the dark green wall.
Tries from Gurthro Steenkamp, Jaque Fourie, Francois Steyn, Morne Steyn, Tendai Mtawarira and Danie Rossouw were key, while Morne Steyn contributed 16 points with his boot for a personal haul of 21.
Fiji’s only score was a Seremaia Bai penalty midway through the second half, and well after the game was over as a contest.
It was 25 minutes, though, before Steenkamp crossed for the game’s opening try and up to then Fiji had held their own, and even threatened at times. But the Bok defence was too good, too sharp and too hard hitting to allow the islanders any sniff of a try.
Fourie crossed before the break and the second-half was just more of the same, with Fiji unable to prevent the score getting out of hand.
Earlier, in Pool B, Argentina had an easy 43-8 win over Romania in Invercargill. The Pumas ran in six tries with Santiago Fernandez and Juan Manuel Leguizamon both crossing in the opening 10 minutes and the European minnows were simply not at the same level as the South Americans.
Juan Figallo and Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino crossed before half-time to end the match as a contest, despite Ionel Cazan’s quick, and solitary reply.