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MONTPELLIER - Skipper John Smit believes the Springboks are better placed than Rugby World Cup rivals New Zealand heading into the knockout rounds of the tournament.
South Africa - who will now face Fiji in the last eight after the Pacific Islanders stunned Wales 38-34 in Nantes on Saturday - shape up to the United States in their final Group A match here on Sunday after some physical workouts in their group.
Smit says while the Springboks will get benefit out of their wins over Samoa, England and Tonga, he claims the All Blacks have not been tested in their group.
New Zealand tuned up for their quarter-final in Cardiff next weekend with an 85-8 romp over Romania in Toulouse on Saturday.
"With the pool that we've managed to lie in with England, Tonga, Samoa and the USA, we're far more fortunate than the All Blacks," said 29-year-old Smit.
"They're probably sitting with a conundrum of where they haven't had any kind of opportunity to test themselves and the first time they'll get to answer those questions is in a play-off situation.
"We've certainly had some physical encounters."
South Africa were taken down to the wire last weekend when Tonga stormed home to within five points of an upset, 30-25.
Although the American Eagles have not had a win in the tournament, Smit said the Springboks were using the opportunity at Stade de la Mosson to fine-tune their preparations for the quarter-final against Fiji in Marseille with close to their best team.
"Tomorrow's game is not about whether it's easy or not to get ourselves up for it, it's more the fact that we've got an opportunity to play 80 minutes as a game 15 that need to be a little more precise on first phase attack," he said.
"If we can get a lot closer to what we'd like to play from a structured point of view then I think we would have ticked that box, which is all we want from tomorrow.
"We've had a lot that we've wanted to show that we haven't got around to. We've managed to score most of our points from turnover and breakdown and playing instinctively off the cuff.
"From a planned point of view there's not a hell of a lot that we have showed.
"So that's the biggest priority for tomorrow's game, where we can be a little more precise. Tomorrow's game is extremely valuable for us to be able to bring that in before we get to the quarter-final."
- AFP
