Joe Rokocoko went over for a hat-trick of tries as New Zealand ran in 13 tries to beat Romania in their final Pool C clash in Toulouse.

The All Blacks were in dominant form with two tries apiece for Sitiveni Sivivatu and Isaia Toeava.

Chris Masoe, Aaron Mauger, Andrew Hore, Nick Evans, Conrad Smith and Doug Howlett also went over.

Romania tried hard but their only try came after 31 mintues through hooker Marius Tincu.

The All Blacks set out their intentions from the start with the first of Sivivatu’s tries coming with less than a minute on the clock.

From then on it was one-way traffic as the Romanians had no answer to New Zealand’s fast attack and the All Blacks built up a 31-0 lead after 25 minutes.

Romania showed some determination to take more from the contest early in the second half but the relentless All Blacks could not be contained.

Rokocoko completed his hat-trick in the second half and his side finished with a flourish with replacement Doug Howlett stretching his all-time New Zealand try scoring record to 49.

Sale-bound Luke McAllister kicked four goals with Evans notching six. With four wins out of four, the All Blacks will travel to Cardiff next weekend in confident mood to play France, Argentina or Ireland in the quarter-finals.
New Zealand: Evans, Rokocoko, Toeava, Mauger, Sivivatu, McAlister, Ellis, Tialata, Mealamu, Somerville, Thorne, Robinson, Collins, Masoe, Lauaki.
Replacements: Hore, Woodcock, Jack, McCaw, Leonard, Howlett, Smith.

Romania: Dumitras, Ciuntu, Gal, Gontineac, Brezoianu, Dimofte, Sirbu, B. Balan, Tincu, Florea, Socol, Petre, Corodeanu, Manta, Tonita.
Replacements: Mavrodin, Ion, Ursache, Ratiu, Calafeteanu, Vlaicu, Dascalu.

Referee: Joel Jutge (France)

New Zealand have named an all-new front row and a new centre pairing for their final World Cup pool match against Romania in Toulouse on Saturday.

Greg Somerville, Keven Mealamu and Neemia Tialata make up the front row, with Aaron Mauger and Isaia Toeava in the centre.

Lock Keith Robinson gets his first start of the tournament.

Romania lock Sorin Socol will captain his side after being recalled to the starting line-up.

Socol missed Romania’s narrow 14-10 victory over Portugal but returns to the side as one of nine changes made by head coach Daniel Santamans.

Prop Bogdan Balan moves from tight-head to loose-head, while flanker Florin Corodeanu switches to the open side.

Second row Cristian Petre, number eight Ovidiu Tonita, centre Romeo Gontineac and full-back Iulian Dumitras are the other survivors from the Portugal game.

The All Blacks leave Chris Jack on the bench, while Ali Williams is rested.

Dan Carter remains at fly-half despite his poor kicking display against Scotland, and Andy Ellis plays at scrum-half.

Fijian-born wingers Joe Rokocoko and Sitiveni Sivivatu will start, and Nick Evans comes in at full-back in place of the injured Leon MacDonald and Mils Muliaina.

With three wins out of three, the All Blacks have already secured their place in the next round.

There they will play France, Argentina or Ireland in Cardiff on 6 October.

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New Zealand: Nick Evans; Joe Rokocoko, Isaia Toeava, Aaron Mauger, Sitiveni Sivivatu; Dan Carter, Andrew Ellis; Neemia Tialata, Keven Mealamu, Greg Somerville, Reuben Thorne, Keith Robinson, Jerry Collins (capt), Chris Masoe, Sione Lauaki
Replacements: Andrew Hore, Tony Woodcock, Chris Jack, Richie McCaw, Brendon Leonard, Luke McAlister, Conrad SmithRomania: Iulian Dumitras; Stefan Ciuntu, Csaba Gal, Romeo Gontineac, Gabriel Brezoianu; Ionut Dimofte, Lucian Sirbu; Bogdan Balan, Marius Tincu, Silviu Florea, Sorin Socol (capt), Cristian Petre, Florin Corodeanu, Alexandru Manta, Ovidiu Tonita.
Replacements: Razvan Mavrodin, Paulica Ion, Valentin Ursache, Cosmin Ratiu, Valentin Calafeteanu, Florin Vlaicu, Dan Vlad or Catalin Robert Dascalu.

Portugal were denied their first World Cup win as Romania came from behind to edge a keenly fought Pool C match.

Romania made a host of mistakes in the opening half and Joaquim Ferreira went over to put Portugal ahead in Toulouse.

Portugal were strong in defence but their resistance was broken when Marius Tincu barged over with 16 minutes left.

Goncalo Malheiro put Portugal back in front with a penalty but Romania sealed the win through Florin Corodeanu’s close-range try late on.

Portugal, playing in their first World Cup, had suffered heavy defeats in their opening three games but fancied their chances of victory following an error-strewn display by their opponents.
 
The Romanians dominated possession and territory but they could not get any momentum in the opening exchanges and had to rely on a succession of aimless punts forward.

And Ferreira made them pay with a try on 20 minutes as Romania threw long and wayward at a line-out.

Romania continued to try to get back into the game in the second half and the video referee turned down appeals for a try when Sorin Socol lost the ball as he was bundled over.

The gameplans for both sides were pretty much the same and with the backs seeing little of the ball, it was up to the forwards to make ground.

And abrasive hooker Tincu got Romania on the board with a try before Portugal’s Malheiro made the score 7-10 with a penalty on 68 minutes.

With the Toulouse crowd roaring them on, Portugal battled to retain their advantage but Corodeanu’s late score was just enough for his side to deny Portugal an historic victory.

Romania and Portugal will go head-to-head looking for their first win of the World Cup in Toulouse.The Romanians have more experience but go into the Pool C contest missing two key men through injury - fly-half Ionut Tofan and prop Petru Balan.

Portugal’s hopes have been hit by the withdrawal of their captain Vasco Uva, who broke his left hand against Italy.

Pedro Leal returns at full-back, Miguel Portela starts on the wing and Diogo Coutinho takes over from Uva.

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Romania: Dumitras; Nicolae, Dimofte, Gontineac, Fercu; Dumbrava, Calafeteanu; Popescu, Mavrodin, B Balan, Ratiu, Petre, Tudori, Manta, Tonita.
Replacements: Tincu, Ion, Socol, Corodeanu, Sirbu, Vlaicu, Brezoianu.

Portugal: Leal; Mateus, Sousa, Mateus, Portela; Cardoso Pinto, Jose Pinto; Cordeiro, Ferreira (capt), Spachuck, Goncalo Uva, Penalva, Coutinho, Joao Uva, Girao.
Replacements: Mure, Correia, Palha, Murinello, Pissarra, Malheiro, Carvalho

Captain Jason White tempered his delight at a 42-0 win over Romania by insisting Scotland will have to raise their game to face New Zealand.

 

Chris Paterson scored the opening try on 70 seconds, with three more coming from Ally Hogg and two by Rory Lamont.

“We knew Romania were going to be tough and they were,” said White.

“That wasn’t good enough to live with the All Blacks. We’ll do our homework, rest up for a couple of days and then look to improve for the weekend.”

Scotland have just four days off before facing the tournament favourites but coach Frank Hadden focussed on a clinical showing against Romania, and was particularly delighted to see them prevented from scoring.

“I’m very happy with the ‘nil’. It’s extremely important to make sure the defence is in working order,” he said.

“Some aspects of the performance in attack were quite impressive as well.”

 Murrayfield was half-full for the game, but Haddon said the size of the crowd was good news.

“I’m particularly happy with the 31,000 crowd, we’re absolutely delighted, it’s our biggest ever crowd for Romania,” he said.

“I’m delighted that the people of Scotland wanted to show their appreciation for the long, hard preparation that we’ve put in.

“We have only played four times this season, so it’s hard to peak at this stage,” he said.

“We approached the game in the right manner and got the right result.”

His Romanian counterpart Robert Antonin blamed the defeat on his players having failed to fully recover from their exertions against Italy six days earlier.

“It’s a heavy defeat. I think my players were tired from the Italy game,” he said.

“The beginning of the game was very bad for us. We were beaten in all the contests. We were beaten in the line-out.”