Wales vs South Africa: Bryan Habana hails spirit of injury-ravaged Wales

South Africa is the first team to reveal their line up for the Rugby World Cup quarter finals.

However, despite dominating possession (about 70%), the Springboks would lose the last-eight encounter 11-9, with much of the South African anger post-match focused on the performance of referee Bryce Lawrence. Seasoned Springbok great Schalk Burger was taken aback.

“The biggest thing for us is that we have a calmness about us”, the 32-year-old said.

“When you look at the experience in their backline, with Bryan Habana and JP Pietersen, who is back from injury, it’s a case of trying to match that experience and strength with what we’ve got”. Strangely, the injuries to stalwarts Jean de Villiers and Victor Matfield, may well prove a blessing for there’s little doubt the best years of these two stalwarts are now something of the past…

The lock pointed out no country has finished second in their pool at the World Cup and gone on to win the tournament but there’s always a first with Wales and fellow dark horses Argentina in the same boat.

There’s no bigger fan of Justin Tipuric, who piled up the tackles against the Wallabies, than me but you can’t leave an in-form captain out in the most important match Wales have faced since losing by a point to France in the semi-finals of the 2011 World Cup.

His reward for that stunning entrance onto the Test arena was Habana’s jersey, with the Springbok later telling North in the changing room: “I want to tell you that you were fantastic out there”.

The Springboks coach also made a decision to leave tighthead prop Jannie du Plessis in the reserves, meaning Meyer, criticized all year for hanging on to the old guard, will persist with the young players who pulled him out of the firestorm following the tournament-opening loss to Japan. The image of the 31-year-old Toulon back row forward sitting on the replacements bench – having exited to a standing ovation at the Millennium Stadium – taking in the news of the award is memorable in its own right as looking surprised he has to ask for confirmation from those around him.

“We need to make sure that we bring our A game, but we are very excited about the weekend”.

“If we played it again, we would win nine times out of 10”.

That in turn has created confidence in the group and, with 10 days between their last pool game and the quarterfinal, they come into the contest as fresh as they could be at this stage.

“We beat South Africa eleven months ago”, said Warburton.

Wales can expect a full-frontal assault from a team which is oozing fresh intent from every pore. Replacements: A Strauss, T Nyakane, J du Plessis, PS du Toit, W Alberts, R Pienaar, P Lambie, J Serfontein.