By Mark Ogagan
South Africa’s Springboks all but sealed a spot in Rugby’s World Cup quarter-finals with a 49-18 victory over Tonga in Marseille last Sunday, but there is a slim chance they still might not make the knock-out phase.
South Africa ran in seven tries to Tonga’s three to nab a crucial bonus point to leave them atop Pool B on 15 points, winning the crucial game 49-18.
The two teams who will advance to the quarter-finals will be decided when the world’s number one ranked team Ireland — who beat the Boks last week – take on Scotland, ranked fifth, in Paris on Saturday.
A win for Ireland would see them finish in top spot and South Africa as runners-up.
However, should Scotland beat Ireland by a margin of 21 points or more, with both teams scoring four tries to earn an attacking bonus point, that would mean all three teams would finish pool play on 15 points.
That permutation would see the Scots topping the group on points difference ahead of Ireland, in second spot thanks to their better head-to-head record against the Boks, in third.
“We’ll have to wait,” said Boks coach Jacques Nienaber. “Our pool gets sorted out on Saturday so it’s a waiting game.
“The key thing for us was to get the win first and then to get a bonus point and then obviously to try to get as many points as we could to put ourselves in the position to get out of our pool.”
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