South Africa in confident mood
By Jess Gardner
From Marseille
MARSEILLE, 4 October - Springboks coach Jake White has every reason to smile ahead of Sunday's quarter-final against Fiji after an almost ideal build-up.
Even a late disruption to his forward pack and the prospect of facing a Fiji team high on enthusiasm could do little to dampen his mood.
"I'm 100 per cent happy with exactly where we are," White said. "What more could we have asked for?"
"(We gained) a bonus point in every game except England."
White praised his team's effort, especially given the high standard of teams in Pool A.
"We've probably had the toughest pool matches. I'm talking in terms of physicality: Samoa, Tonga and England."
Firm favourites
South Africa go into the quarter-final as firm favourites, which sits well with White, however the Springboks mentor is not prepared to write off the Fijians and has nothing but praise for their sharp backline.
"I think they're probably more athletic in their backs," he explains. "Tonga have the forwards, Samoa the tacklers and Fiji the running game."
"One-on-one, they can get past most people."
South Africa will challenge Fiji at the contact area to try and control the game.
"I don't think there's any secret we'll take on Fiji in the forwards. We've got a big aggressive pack," team technical adviser Eddie Jones said.
Surprising
The two teams have met on only one occasion, 11 years ago, with South Africa victorious 43-18. This lack of game time against the Fijians and their entry to the final eight is of some concern to White.
"Let me put it this way, we did all our analysis on Wales, on the expectation they would be second in the pool (B)," White said.
However, he is confident his forward pack is up to the task despite BJ Botha being ruled out for the remainder of the tournament and CJ van der Linde still in doubt due to a knee injury.
Botha's replacement, Jannie du Plessis, who arrived on Thursday, is on standby but White is hopeful van der Linde will play.
"We can't be saving him for two weeks time (semi-final) and not get through this one (quarter-final)," White said.
RNS jg/eg/md/gs