KEY POINTS:
Josh Lewsey knew what was coming even before he took his seat to talk about England's clash with South Africa in Paris early tomorrow.
The versatile Lewsey is on the right wing for the key pool A clash which puts him face to face with the World Cup's player of the moment. And that means ...
"Let me guess: Bryan Habana. How good is he?" he said.
Bang on old son. And since you mention it ...
"If you give him space, he'll run rings around you," Lewsey said. "When a team play well, their back trio have opportunities. And there is probably no one better than Habana to make use of any opportunities."
Reflecting on Habana's four-try special in the first-up 59-7 win over Samoa last weekend, Lewsey remarked that "to beat five players before scoring a try is not simply about the forwards putting the building blocks in place".
Habana's first against the Samoans was an outstanding, squirming, elusive 45m run past, round and through tacklers.
But Lewsey's forwards reference was in response to Habana's modest reaction to his achievement of equalling Chester Williams' record for most World Cup tries in a match, by chance also against Samoa, during their 1995 quarter-final in Johannesburg.
"I take my hat off to the forwards in the second half," Habana said.
"It was a lot easier for the backs when the forwards dominated as they did."
That only goes part way to explaining why the 24-year-old from Benoni near Johannesburg is the talk of the cup.
Having serious speed is one thing; but Habana looks for work, has an eagle eye for an interception opportunity, can beat his marker and thrives in broken play. Oh yes, and he's got the necessary confidence to back himself.
Eddie Jones, the former Wallaby coach now on Springbok coach Jake White's coaching team, likes what he sees but he's cautious about talking of pecking orders among the Flash Harrys out wide.
"He's got exceptional pace. He's a matchwinner. He's got the ability to finish off breaks," Jones said.
"Is he the best? Oh, there's a few good wingers, but he's certainly up there. They're all F1 and he'd be on the starting pole."
Habana's remarkable rise to fame began in 2004. He made his debut for the Golden Lions in South Africa's domestic Currie Cup. Thirteen tries followed that season and two key rugby men took notice.
Bulls coach Heyneke Meyer snapped Habana up for the following Super 12 campaign and White chose him for the end-of-year tour to the Northern Hemisphere.
His debut off the bench came at Twickenham - and he promptly scored. He started his first test against Scotland a week later and snapped up two tries.
And he hasn't looked back. His record now stands at 26 tries from 29 tests and he's fast closing on Joost van der Westhuizen's record 38 test tries.
"My role in the team is to score tries and to finish off set moves," he said this week.
That's pretty simplistic, and maybe that's a key to his success. Don't overcomplicate things; keep it simple.
White knows how important Habana is in a team which has become short on creativity in recent times.
"He's a special, special player," he said.
"You need to have players like that, like Bryan and Sitiveni Sivivatu, who can run 70 metres on their own and break a game apart by striking from almost anywhere on the field.
"Bryan is very important to the way we want to play. And he's worked really hard at his all-round game. "He's still relatively young and he's got a long career in front of him."
