The Springboks have one foot in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup in France following a win against Tonga in Marseille on Sunday night.

The Boks certainly won't be at their best as they beat the Sea Eagles 49-18, but the good win moved them to the top of the table in Pool B.

Tonga put the Springboks under a lot of pressure in the first half in particular and they asked a lot of questions of the World Champions defence after camping in the 22-area for lengthy periods.

The Boks managed to score seven tries in the win and they have done everything they can and now it remains a waiting game to see what happens between Ireland and Scotland.

The win came at a heavy price as the winger Makazole Mapimpi suffered a fracture to the cheekbone area of his face during the first half and he will go for scans on Monday.

A major positive for the Springboks is that Handré Pollard’s return to international rugby was a good one with the flyhalf playing for close to an hour and he managed to slot four conversions for a 100% display with the boot from the tee. Manie Libbok, who replaced him in the second half, also slotted all of his kicks, and he seemed to manage the shot-clock a lot better and wasn’t rushed in his kicks from the tee.

Now it will be a nervous wait for the Springboks with the team having completed their Pool B games. While the Boks are at the top of the table with 15 points, the result between Ireland and Scotland in Paris on Saturday will determine the Springboks' fate.

While the Boks have done all they could to advance to the quarter-finals, where they could potentially meet the hosts France, they could well still be eliminated and have their reign as the champions brought to an end.

The Springbok coach, Jacques Nienaber, said they did as much as they could and now it’s out of their hands, but the players need a short break from the game to recharge.

“The positive is it is pretty much similar to what we experienced in 2019 when we also finished our pool quite early.

“I think we had a 12-13 day preparation break before we went into our quarter-final against Japan. It is something we have done before as a group. It worked out well for us back then so we'll give them two-three days off and then start preparing.

“Until we know what the outcome is of the pool and who we will face, the France New Zealand pool will only be determined on Friday night so we will only actually know, depending on how Pool B finishes, we will have a good idea of who we will play.

“I think in the first week now, give the guys some time off to get away from the game, to have a little bit of a mental break and then start focusing on what we can do better. So internally, focusing us on things we must improve if we want to stay in this competition until the end.”

Ireland and Scotland go head-to-head at 21:00 on Saturday night at Stade de France in Paris.

Scorers:

Springboks: Tries – Cobus Reinach, Canan Moodie, Deon Fourie, Jesse Kriel, Willie le Roux, Marco van Staden, Kwagga Smith Conv. - Handré Pollard 4, Manie Libbok 3

Tonga: Tries - Ben Tameifuna, Fine Inisi, Patrick Pellegrini Pen. - William Havili

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport