There are two ways of looking at South Africa’s clinical demolition of big-hitting Samoa, which saw the Springboks beat the Pacific Islanders by 60 points to 10.
Either England, who only sneaked past the islanders 35-22 in Melbourne last Sunday, aren’t really as good as we thought.
Or the Springboks, with Derick Hougaard at fly-half instead of miskicker Louis Koen, are a potent weapon.
Let’s go for the second option. It feels better.
The South Africans, beaten 25-6 by England two weeks ago thanks partly to four Koen penalty misses, had the Spring back in their Boks yesterday.
New Zealand, their likely quarter-final opposition in Melbourne next Saturday, must be feeling a lot less sure of themselves after watching this eight-try demolition of humbled heroes Samoa.
All they have to show for their World Cup efforts is one Brian Lima tackle which left Hougaard in bits. The land of just 180 000 people has failed to qualify from their pool for the first time in their glorious history.
And if the Boks hadn’t made a series of unsuccessful drop goal attempts it might have been seriously embarrassing.
The World Cup had taken these Samoans to our hearts. When we were all talking about the Hougaard/Koen switch on Thursday, their management had no idea of the Bok line-up.
They prefer sing-songs, prayer meetings and days out to the endless preparation of the professionals. And it showed yesterday.
John Boe’s boys, apparently burnt out after that magnificent performance against England, simply didn’t play for the first 20 minutes, shipping early tries from Joe van Niekerk and Jorrie Muller. Add a Chris Hougaard drop goal to his two conversions and they were 17-3 down in 13 minutes.
The Boks did what England didn’t. They scrummed and mauled the less-organised Samoan forwards in to oblivion. And they reduced the Samoan line-out to a shambles.
All the running in the world won’t help you if you’ve got no ball.
Young Hougaard, starting for the first time ahead of Koen, then produced a kick-ahead try against the run of play followed by a Juan Smith touchdown right on half-time.
At 31-3, it was all over by the interval.
But you could hear the roar across this vast island when a superb move saw Opeta Palepoi go over in the corner to make it 31-10, thanks to limping Earl Va’a’s inch-perfect conversion.
The Samoans then put huge pressure on the Bok line, but the defence held and it was Hougaard who scored next with a penalty to calm the 48 000 crowd.
In retaliation, Lima — playing a record 16th successive World Cup match – hit Hougaard with a tackle which made the earth move. The poor lad, only 20, took five minutes to scrape himself off the floor of the packed Suncorp Stadium.
It will go down as the hit of the tournament when we look back after the final, but by then the Samoans will be long gone.
Pacey Ashwin Willemse, so quiet on the wing for the Boks so far, ran away from the Samoan defence to confirm their place in the last eight with a humiliating fifth try before young replacement Jacques Fourie added a sixth and Thinus Delport a seventh.
Replacement scrum-half Neil de Kok went over for number eight. By now Koen was on, and he scored from a difficult angle despite the arrival of an idiotic spectator.
Ouch.
With Rudi Straeuli’s men in this sort of form, the awesome foursome of Australia v New Zealand and France v England may be feeling slightly less secure about the semi-final line-up.