Defending champion South Africa can secure a quarterfinal place on Sunday in Marseille with a bonus-point win against Tonga, which needs its own bonus-point win to stay in the running.
“We don't have any A and B, we just know that we have 33 players who can pitch up every day when they're given an opportunity,” assistant coach Mzwandile Stick says.
They're not underestimating Tonga, either. Not with what's at stake.
“We can't talk about the playoffs, because if we don't win, there are no playoffs,” Stick says. “And we don't want to rely on other teams' results.”
To ensure any problems can be fixed on the field, forwards Eben Etzebeth, Jasper Wiese and Siya Kolisi, who leads the Springboks for the 50th time, start again after the narrow loss to Ireland last weekend.
Pollards return
They are also using the game to get emergency replacement Handre Pollard up to speed.
He enters his first test in 13 months with only 30 recent minutes of club rugby since he was injured in May. The Boks need him to tune his flyhalf play and goalkicking radar after their goalkicking woes against Ireland.
Tonga has been disappointing in defeats by Ireland (59-16) and Scotland (45-17). The forwards have been outworked and overwhelmed and unable to give a star-studded backline enough front-foot ball.
The lineout has been messy and the defense porous. Their best chance of a win is next weekend against Romania.
