South Africa unleash their massive forward pack against a robust Samoa team in the second World Cup Pool B match on Sunday.
England opened their defence of the William Webb Ellis trophy on Saturday evening with a ponderous 28-10 win over the United States and their game against the Springboks on Friday is expected to decide who heads the pool.
Six other teams will be in action after a packed opening weekend which began with Argentina’s shock 17-12 win over hosts France at the Stade de France in Paris on Friday.
Wales meet Canada in Nantes in the first match of the day followed by the South Africa-Samoa clash at the Parc des Princes in Paris.
Scotland then play Portugal in St Etienne with Ireland concluding the day’s action against Namibia in Bordeaux.
Meanwhile, Bok coach Jake White is worried about the power of the Pacific Islanders having an impact on his team’s chances of beating 2003 world champion England in the crucial Group A match on Friday.
Favourable draw
”They [England] are the world champions so they may have received a more favourable draw than us,” White said.
With the Tuilagi brothers, the 113kg winger Alesana and his bigger and older sibling, the 126kg number eight Henry, playing alongside captain Semo Sititi, White is right to be concerned.
Famed for its strength in contact situations and with a rushing backline defence that mirrors the Springboks’ own, Samoa is well equipped to physically hurt South Africa, if perhaps not on the Stade de France scoreboard.
Brian Lima, dubbed ”The Chiropractor” for his ability to readjust skeletal frames with his robust tackling, is on the bench and will become the first player to take part in five World Cups if he takes the field.
The 35-year-old winger made his tournament debut in 1991 at 19 when Samoa beat Wales. He has become a mentor to his teammates and preaches the importance of preparation.
”My role is to advise and guide them on the field and off, and to pay attention to how they look after themselves,” Lima said. There’s quite a few up-and-coming players. [Fullback] David Lemi is very fast.
He’s not a big guy, but he plays really well for his size. He plays very open rugby.”
Power game
South Africa is not averse to playing the power game, as lock Bakkies Botha hinted.
”We as a team know we must dominate the forwards to put our backline on the front foot,” he said. ”We know that Samoa are physical as well and they put in big tackles and they have a good pack as well.
”We have been playing together for almost four years now and we know each other well, so we complement each other to dominate up front and I think that is a very big key.”
Botha and Victor Matfield form a world-class lock combination, with flanker Schalk Burger and number eight Danie Rossouw offering further lineout options to ensure the set-piece remains a strength of South Africa.
Matfield says his team can dominate in the lineout as he downplayed talk of the Springboks winning the title.
”It is not the strongest part of [Samoa’s] game, but when I went through the videos, it’s not too bad,” he said.
”I think that New Zealand and France are probably ahead of everyone else, and then ourselves and Australia, England, Ireland, who are all together next in line.”
As with all the other major rugby nations, White named a full-strength team for the first game, opting for Butch James instead of Andre Pretorius at flyhalf. – Reuters, Sapa-AP