KEY POINTS:
LENS - Tonga coach Quddus Fielea believes his outsiders can exploit South Africa's ring-rusty second team and cause a stunning World Cup upset here on Saturday.
Springboks coach Jake White has made 11 changes to the team which beat England last week and, with quarter-final qualification virtually assured, he has turned to his second string for this Pool A encounter.
But the Boks 'B' team, led by veteran Bobby Skinstad, haven't played a competitive match for a month when they limped to a 18-3 win against Irish province Connaught and Fielea is hoping his battling Pacific islanders can catch the 1995 champions cold.
"We are not the team who are in the position of having to make adjustments, it's up to them. We are prepared for whatever comes our way," Fielea told AFP here on Friday.
Tonga are second in Pool A, four points ahead of defending champions England who take on Samoa also on Saturday.
Tonga and England will clash in what is shaping up to be a winner-takes-all match for a quarter-final slot in Paris next Friday.
"We have seen the second tier nations putting up fights against the big guys at this World Cup," said Fielea.
"It may be South Africa's second team. It's all up to them. We know what we need to know and what to do but that's a secret for us."
South Africa and Tonga have only met once before when the Springboks raced to a 74-10 victory in Cape Town in 1997 but even that brutal scoreline hasn't dampened Fielea's optimism.
"We have two more games to go. It's like having two lifelines," said the coach who has already seen his side defeat the United States and Samoa.
"But we will throw everything we have at South Africa. We intend to give it a go instead of waiting for the England game.
"Anything can happen. If Saturday is our day, then it will be our day.
"It's better to die knowing you did everything you could. Regretting when it's all over is pointless."
Skipper Nili Latu also insisted that Tonga want to wrap up their quarter-final place on Saturday.
"Our goal was to beat USA and Samoa and we knew the door would be open after that," said the flanker.
"We want to win, we want to cement our place in the quarter-finals. Some of the boys are based in Tonga, some in the UK and others in the Super 14, so it's a great opportunity, a benchmark to see how good we are against our opposite numbers.
"We're only going to be better in the future."
- AFP
