South Africa vs Samoa - Match Preview

Perhaps only South Africans will fully understand the massive pressure the Springboks have been under

since their calamitous defeat by Japan, because the level of expectation at home is uncompromising. The

vitriolic criticism from back home of their conquest by a team they were expected to thump by a wide

margin, will have been felt by players and coaches like a tidal wave of reproach.

Nothing other than a convincing win over Samoa, with forwards and backs combining to produce a

performance of skill and class and dynamic winning rugby, will quieten the mass criticism of fickle

supporters. Most South Africans with any interest at all in rugby regard themselves as experts, and players

and coaches know how tough it is to live with that when they are not producing victories.

The Boks need to be tactically more intelligent – less predictable, more skilful, more creative, less shackled

to a tight pattern set down by their coaches. More accurate use of the boot and better organised set-piece

defence is crucial, as will simply offering more energy and urgency than they did in their pedestrian debacle

of a performance against Japan.

Samoa were not all that convincing in beating the USA and will be aiming at lifting their performance

exponentially against the Boks. They will be facing a backlash from a group of Bok players under more

pressure to deliver than at any time in their careers – and that includes those players with a decade or more

of Test rugby and numerous trophy-winning campaigns behind them, because their stellar careers are

threatened by a desperately unhappy anti-climax.

Key players:

All 23 Springboks really, with careers potentially on the line in what amounts to either a tournament rescue

operation or a disaster scenario. Duane Vermeulen and Damian de Allende could bring an urgently needed

dynamism up front and to the backline. Fourie du Preez needs to regain in great haste his long-celebrated

sharpness. Handré Pollard gets yet another opportunity to show he is the best 10 selection. For Samoa, Tim

Nanai-Williams will be their strongest attacking pressure point. Kahn Fotuali’i at 9 and Mike Stanley at 10,

and loose forwards Jack Lam and Ofisa Treviranus, will be the other players around whom the Samoan

game revolves.

The big match-ups:

Vermeulen vs Treviranus at 8, Lam vs Francois Louw at openside, Iosefa Tekori vs Victor Matfield at 5-

lock, and Bryan Habana (back at left wing where he should always be playing) vs Ken Pisi.