AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — England joined South Africa as winners of their first three matches at the Rugby World Cup, nearly as convincingly as the defending champion Springboks were two nights earlier.
Mark Cueto scored a hat trick in his first World Cup appearance since the 2007 final and fellow wing Chris Ashton also crossed three times to give England a 67-3 win over Romania on Saturday at Dunedin in Pool B. South Africa defeated Namibia 87-0 in Pool D on Thursday and both undefeated sides have all but secured quarterfinal berths.
England never threatened to match the 134-0 win it racked up against the same opponent a decade ago, but avoided being pulled into an arm wrestle with the Romanian forwards and cut out most of the breakdown infringements that marred its wins over Argentina and Georgia.
