South Africa aren’t officially through to the quarter-finals, but they’re very close. The only team that could stop them, Italy, need to beat New Zealand to do so, but a bonus-point victory over pointless Canada, who have lost their two games so far by an aggregate score of 111-7, would end even that slender possibility. The Springboks’ only significant enemy would appear to be complacency, though Rassie Erasmus’s tough talking should deal with that: “If these players don’t step up then they will fail to stay in the team,” he raged, pre-match. “They know that and it will be one of the challenges for them.”
Canada’s assistant coach, Huw Wiltshire, says the Sprinboks and the All Blacks are the best teams in the tournament. “Two things you can’t defend against in rugby are speed and power, and both those countries have got it across their teams, across the park and across their whole squads,” he added, in what sounded very much like a verbal raising of a metaphorical white flag.
Thirteen changes for South Africa, six for Canada, these are today’s teams. And welcome!
South Africa: 15-Damian Willemse, 14-Warrick Gelant, 13-Damian de Allende, 12-Francois Steyn, 11-Sbu Nkosi, 10-Elton Jantjies, 9-Cobus Reinach, 8-Francois Louw, 7-Kwagga Smith, 6-Siya Kolisi (captain), 5-Franco Mostert, 4-RG Snyman, 3-Vincent Koch, 2-Schalk Brits, 1-Thomas Du Toit.
Replacements: 16-Malcolm Marx, 17-Steven Kitshoff, 18-Frans Malherbe, 19-Eben Etzebeth, 20-Pieter-Steph du Toit, 21-Herschel Jantjies, 22-Handre Pollard, 23-Willie le Roux.
Canada: 15-Andrew Coe, 14-Jeff Hassler, 13-Conor Trainor, 12-Ciaran Hearn, 11-DTH Van Der Merwe, 10-Peter Nelson, 9-Phil Mack, 8-Tyler Ardron (captain), 7-Matt Heaton, 6-Lucas Rumball, 5-Kyle Baillie, 4-Evan Olmstead, 3-Jake Ilnicki, 2-Andrew Quattrin, 1-Hubert Buydens.
Replacements: 16-Benoit Piffero, 17-Djustice Sears-Duru, 18-Matt Tierney, 19-Josh Larsen, 20-Michael Sheppard, 21-Jamie Mackenzie, 22-Shane O’Leary, 23-Guiseppe du Toit.