Boks overcome Fiji

The Springboks delivered a sub-par performance, yet managed to pull off a hard-fought 37 – 20 victory over a strong Fijian side to progress to the semifinals of Rugby World Cup 2007.

The scorers:

South Africa 37
Tries: Jaque Fourie, John Smit, JP Pietersen, Juan Smith, Butch James
Conversions: Percy Montgomery (3)
Penalties: Frans Steyn, Montgomery.

Fiji 20
Tries: Vilimoni Delasau, Sireli Bobo
Conversions: Seremaia Bai (2)
Penalties: Bai (2).

What they said:

Jake White (Bok Coach)

“We didn’t play as well as we could have done, we know that, but we have still got a chance to win the World Cup.

“I would much rather be where I am today than where New Zealand and Australia are.

“Fiji are a really good rugby team. They offload in the tackles, they break tackles and defensively they are very strong. To score five tries against them is a huge positive.

“I thought the leadership of the senior players was outstanding. With 20 minutes to go, we could have fallen apart.

“I thought our captain was huge when it mattered most. He showed tremendous leadership in dealing with a situation that could have got messy. If you look at what happened in Cardiff and you look at what happened here I am glad we’ve got our leader.

“They (Fiji) have a history of scoring tries that are down to instinctive brilliance and we saw a couple out there, but I am pleased we are in the World Cup semi-finals.

“When we kept our shape and played to structure we were in control of the test. When we did silly things we got ourselves into trouble. But to be blunt I’d rather be sitting here in this position knowing we are going to Paris because the coaches of the top two ranked teams in the world are going home.

“This is play-offs rugby. Every match presents a different type of challenge. Whoever we play in the semi-final will be a lot different to playing Fiji. It means our preparation will be a bit different and so will our approach.

“We scored five very good tries. They scored two very good tries. The crowd certainly got some good rugby out there and I am glad we got through this match.

The Bok coach refused to criticise Francois Steyn for his erratic display.

“He’s a kid. He’s 20 years-old. He does brilliant things and he does things he probably wouldn’t do if he had been playing test rugby for five years. It was important to back him and that’s why I was not going to make a change with him.

“He does things instinctively. You do that kind of thing when you are 20. He’ll be a better player because of today.”

John Smit (Bok Captain)

“We didn’t want to allow them into the game and when we played in their half, everything went well for us.

“We are quite happy we got out alive today, especially looking at the other results this weekend.

“Fiji came out at us and at 20-20 I thought I didn’t want to be in that position with only a couple of minutes to go.

“But there were still 20 minutes left and we put ourselves into a position to get back into their 22.

“The priority was to get through but we made life difficult for ourselves. We knew Fiji were solid and well organised, with a couple of great runners. Their skills are top-class.

“You’ve got to play those situations to know them. I’ll take the way we played the last quarter in this match. When we look back on this campaign it could prove to have been among those defining moments that champions talk about.

“I’m pleased we won. We worked hard for the win and emotionally were put under pressure. We survived it and that’s a good sign.”

Mosese Rauluni (Fiji Captain)

“I couldn’t be more proud of the boys for their effort. It has been a great ride in this World Cup but the road stops here.

“We had great belief when we 13-3 down because we knew we were finding holes in their defence.

“France beating New Zealand yesterday was inspirational to us, although we didn’t sleep much because of all the car horns going off in the old port!

“A lot of people wrote France off, but it could be tough for everyone else now in this tournament.

“A few mistakes started to creep into South Africa’s game and the boys were really bouncing, but they eventually punished us and really put pressure on our scrum.”