Boks eyeing top spot

“After the match against Japan, we were under vast pressure, the worst I’ve ever experienced, and although the character of the team came through, we’re still under the same pressure”, said the scrum-half, who assumed the armband after Jean de Villiers broke his jaw during the 46-6 Pool B thrashing of Samoa. I think it bodes well for us.

The Boks’ quarter-final opponents will only be determined on Saturday as they will face the losers of the match between Australia and Wales.

That is not an attempt to take credit away from South Africa, it’s simply a reminder that the real work will begin now and that the mistakes they have made over the last two weeks must yield a few lessons. The 31-year-old loose forward plays professionally for reigning European champions Toulon, alongside the likes of Bryan Habana, Matt Giteau and a host of French global players.

“That’s something that doesn’t come around very often so it’s a moment I’ll definitely relish; not only playing against the Springboks but to lace up next to him”, Shalom Suniula said of the sibling combination. “It’ll be nice to speak a little bit of Afrikaans”. “All you can really do is just get on with the job”. And central to that defence over the last two games has been Lood de Jager. If Matfield recovers, Meyer will have to make a tough call: experience or the in-form player?

Prior to the match against the US, Meyer had spoken about the team “doing a Roger Bannister”, regarding overcoming the impossible. Coach Heyneke Meyer is taking no chances, selecting a almost full-strength starting XV and resting only veteran lock Victor Matfield, prop Jannie du Plessis and injured winger JP Pietersen.

“The great thing is that after we played Japan, we made slight changes to the game plan, went back to what suits us, and also mixed it up a bit”, Meyer said. It will be a cracker of a game and it doesn’t matter what happened before.

“We are building momentum now and the confidence is there, but we have to stay humble, because we haven’t achieved anything yet”.

They have recovered with with wins over Samoa and Scotland but still need to beat the United States to be sure of a last-eight place.

Georgia is another team who appear to be slowly improving from World Cup to World Cup. But instead of breathing a sigh of relief, South Africa will have to take a deep breath in.

Even more telling was the determination to keep a clean sheet, making them the first team to shut the Americans out in a World Cup tie since the first tournament in 1987.

So far at this World Cup, the average margin to the tier 1 team in these games has been 33 points.