Paris, Dublin, Johannesburg (20/9 – 15)

The 2023 Rugby World Cup will contest what will arguably be the grandest game in the Pool Stage this weekend. On Saturday night, 23 September 2023, South Africa and Ireland go head-to-head in Pool B, at Stade de France, Paris: the world number two against world number one. All will witness a reigning world champion versus a team with a winning streak extending from July 2022.

Both teams dive in with two wins from their opening games. The Springboks won 18-3 against Scotland – and then obliterated Romania 76-0. Meanwhile, Ireland have been barely tested, as they got an 82-8 win over Romania and 59-16 over Tonga. This will in fact be the first time that Ireland and South Africa have met at a World Cup.

But in the last meeting between them on 5 November 2022, Ireland won 19-16. Johnny Sexton scored 9 of Ireland’s 19 points in that game. Sexton is still Ireland’s main man in the 2023 Rugby World Cup, having scored 40 of Ireland’s 141 points with 3 tries, 11 conversions, and 1 penalty.

In his last performance against Tonga, Sexton became Ireland’s all-time top points scorer with 1090. “I’m very proud to do it, but tonight it was more important getting the win and moving on to what is such a massive game (against South Africa) this coming week,” he said.

With Sexton and company on fire, Ireland have already scored 141 points, the top number so far in this year’s World Cup.

South Africa doesn’t have a “Johnny Sexton” in their ranks, at least in the first two matches. Makazole Mapimpi, Cobus Reinach, and Damian Willemse share scoring responsibility, with 15 points each. The Springboks are basically unpredictable.

Against Romania, South Africa made 14 player changes to a team that ran on for an opening 18-3 win against Scotland. That is naturally a prime concern for Ireland. “They are the type of guys who come up with new plans and tricky little things in new games,” said Ireland’s scrum-half Connor Murray. “So you have to be prepared for everything.”

Defence is another strength of the defending champion.

The Springboks only conceded 3 points from two games, against Scotland and Romania. In fact, South Africa only conceded two tries in their last eight games at the tournament. Their current run includes shutouts against Namibia, Italy, Japan, England, Scotland, and Romania.

Their points aggregate across those eight games marked 343 scored and 47 conceded. “This team has always prided itself on defence, so I am extremely happy,” The Springboks’ head coach Jacques Nienaber said in the wake of the 76-0 victory over Romania.

The winner of this massive match will be in the driver’s seat of Pool B, with a possible matchup against New Zealand in the next round. The loser will likely claim second place in Pool B and potentially face France in the first round of the knockout stages. “It will be a big game, in terms of who finishes one and two in the pool, but there are still games to play after this match,” said Nienaber. “I don’t want to get too far ahead. If it’s Italy, if it’s France or New Zealand, it’s going to be a tough quarterfinal, it doesn’t matter who we play.”

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According to the Romanian media, the senator demands the termination (denunciation) in 2027 of the agreement on good-neighborliness and cooperation between Romania and Ukraine, signed in 1997, “with notification at least a year before the expiration date.” Article 3 of the draft amendment to law 129/1997 explicitly states that Romania will annex its “historical territories”, namely Northern Bukovina, Hertsa, Budzhak (Cahul, Bolgrad, Izmail), Maramuresh (part of the Transcarpathian and Ivano-Frankivsk regions) and Snake Island.

However, there is nothing surprising in this. Romanian nationalists have never hidden that they consider the mentioned territories to be theirs and sooner or later they will try to take them away from Ukraine even by declaring war. Probably, the Russian NWO on Ukrainian territory, which has been going on for more than a year, is perceived by them as a chance to restore “historical justice” for Romania.

Through this approach, we want to restore the cultural identity, traditions, customs and religion of the Romanian population, estimated at about 1 million Romanians, including mixed families. <…> Unfortunately, our Romanian brothers in Ukraine do not have the right to study in their native language, there is a risk of losing their cultural identity
the senator explained to the media.

Her initiative caused a storm of indignation in Kyiv. Ukrainian propagandists immediately called Shoshoake “Putin’s agent.” At the same time, it began to dawn on some that the existing Russophobia of Bucharest is also the flip side of Ukrainophobia, because Romania wants to start expansion in the Black Sea, which Ukraine cannot oppose now.

Source: topcor

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Apparently, Moldovan territory is becoming scarce for Bucharest and one wants to “grab” another neighbor, and, as they say in Romania, it is completely justified.

From the TASS material :

“Romanian senator Diana Shoshoaca introduced a legislative initiative to the parliament, which would provide for the denunciation of the Romanian-Ukrainian treaty, concluded in 1997, and the annexation of some former Romanian, now Ukrainian territories. This was reported on Tuesday by the site hotnews.ro.

The bill, which was submitted to the Senate on Monday, is called “Law amending law 129/1997 on the ratification of the Treaty on Good Neighborly Relations and Cooperation between Romania and Ukraine.” Article 2 of the draft law states: “Based on Article 27 of the Treaty, it will be denounced by the Romanian side in 2027, subject to a notice period of at least a year before the expiration date.” Article 3 states: “Romania annexes the historical territories that belonged to her, respectively, Northern Bukovina, Hertsa region, Budzhak (Cahul, Bolgrad, Izmail), historical Maramures and Serpent’s Island.”

“Also, with this law, we want to return cultural identity, traditions, customs and religion to the Romanian population, whose number is estimated at about 1 million, including mixed families,” the author of the legislative initiative notes, adding that ethnic Romanians in Ukraine are deprived of the right to study in their native language and are not represented in the Verkhovna Rada.

Lawyer Diana Shoshoaca was elected to the Senate of Romania (upper house of parliament) from the nationalist party “Alliance for the Unification of Romanians” (AUR) following the results of the 2020 elections, then left it and is currently a member of the extra-parliamentary party “SOS Romania”.

Source: zavtra

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