Refreshed Springboks ready to rumble

Springboks coach Peter de Villiers gave his players two days off to recharge the batteries ahead of their final Rugby World Cup 2011 Pool D match against Samoa on Friday.

The South Africans split their free time between golf, fishing or simply relaxing before they returned to training under blue skies at Owen Delany Park in Taupo on Monday and it seemed to have had the desired effect.

"Everybody's just buzzing," prop Tendai Mtawarira said after Monday's training session. "We're feeling refreshed and everybody's looking forward to Friday."

Samoa's grinding 27-7 win over Fiji in Auckland on Sunday has given them an outside chance of reaching their first quarter-final in 16 years.

The Pacific Islanders will need to beat the rejuvenated Springboks, or take a solitary bonus point if Fiji can defeat Wales in Sunday's Pool D match.

"They're very dangerous, especially their back three with ball in hand," South Africa hooker Bismarck du Plessis said about Samoa.

Match time

"I think their scrums are superb and it was one of their main weapons against Fiji."

Du Plessis is expected to be drafted into the starting XV and captain John Smit, who has played 15 consecutive RWC matches, named on the bench.

Lineout specialist Victor Matfield should make his comeback from a hamstring injury as he seeks valuable match time before a likely quarter-final against Tri Nations champions Australia.

Second row Danie Rossouw, a standout for the RWC defending champions in this tournament, will hand over the lineout jumping duties to Matfield.

Rossouw expects another torrid encounter against the Samoans.

"They will run hard and straight and keep the ball. We know what's coming," he said.

Off script

Mtawarira revealed Smit had urged the players to focus on the clash with Samoa and not look ahead to the quarter-finals."

John actually spoke to us before training today and told us we don't care who we were given (in the quarter-finals). We just want to play rugby and play our best," Mtawarira said.

He briefly went off script when asked whether the Springboks had the belief to beat raging favourites New Zealand in the semi-finals, before reverting to the party line.

"We have got that belief. We've done it before, many times," he said. "For us, we're just taking it step by step."

De Villiers will name his 22-man squad for the match against Samoa on Tuesday.