Matfield out, Pietersen returns for Springboks for quarters

Less than a year later Tyler Morgan was shaking hands with Wales wing George North who was dishing out prizes to the Caerleon side who had defeated Corpus Christi in the Welsh Schools Cup final at Parc y Scarlets in which the young centre had scored a try.

George North reverted to his regular wing spot, and Morgan was picked for his third cap.

Morgan is relishing the chance.

“I always seem to get chucked in the deep end”, said Morgan.

What wins Rugby World Cup knockout matches?

“I am buzzing, really”, he said. “That’s the game I enjoy playing”.

Wales can find a way to beat this team, and there are five things they must do to achieve it.

Gatland has reminded the squad in no uncertain terms in a tough-love review session just how important it is to be composed as well as clinical.

“I said after the first game as a coach your players feed off you”, he said.

“We’ve been pretty critical of the players – Toby Faletau losing ball in contact, Dan Biggar screaming for it with a three on one overlap”, Gatland said. The hard decision is to make a pass. The easy one, and the wrong one probably, is to tuck the ball under your arm.

However, in another sense, we quite literally mean that they’re on a rollercoaster ride.

“Wale have also been under huge pressure in their pool”. For England it was physicality, against Fiji it was for the players to maintain their intensity while the message ahead of Australia, which failed to entirely filter through come game time, was having the freedom to express themselves. “It is high risk, high reward. We just need to make sure that we’re ready”.

Morgan will have the experience of Wales most capped centre outside him as they tackle an inexperienced South African centre partnership of Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel.

As the jumbo jets on the Heathrow flight path roared over the team’s Weybridge base – the ghost supposedly haunting their hotel must be a plane-spotter – Gatland also emphasised that Wales’s struggle to emerge from the ultra-competitive Pool A might also count in their battle-hardened favour if they survive their Springboks examination. Lydiate was ruled out of the Australia game after taking a heavy blow to his face against Fiji. The plate was inserted into his eye socket.

South Africa’s Bryan Habana arrives for a training session at Pennyhill Park, in Bagshot, outside London, Tuesday, October 13, 2015.

“They’re an incredibly physical team up front and we have to match them at scrum time and lineout”. Japan was able to field such a diverse lineup because lenient eligibility criteria peculiar to rugby allow anyone who has resided here for three years to represent the national team, even if they are not Japanese citizens. It has galvanised them. “Whether our pool’s been too hard or not we’ll see on Saturday”.

Luke Charteris and Alun Wyn Jones continue in the second row with the latter making his 100th global appearance – 94th for Wales, plus six British & Irish Lions appearances.

Francis says he has had “a bit of banter” with his Exeter colleagues, England internationals Henry Slade and Jack Nowell, and he is quick to acknowledge the role of Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter in developing him as a player.

In 2011, South Africa dominated territory and possession against Australia only to go down 11-9 to the Wallabies in an engrossing last-eight clash in Wellington, New Zealand.