Defending champions South Africa beat a hard-hitting Tonga 49-18 in Marseille on Sunday to bag a crucial bonus-point victory that leaves them atop Pool B and with one foot in the World Cup quarter-finals.
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The Springboks now have 15 points from their four matches, but the pool winners and runners-up who advance to the quarter-finals will only be decided when Ireland — who beat the Boks 13-8 last week — take on Scotland in Paris on Saturday, with a number of permutations possible.
After that defeat by the Irish, the Boks knew they had to win against Tonga, with a bonus point, and preferably by a large score to improve their points differential.
A victory it proved to be, the Boks crossing for seven tries but the Tongan side stayed competitive throughout and went over for three of their own.
“We knew they weren’t just going to lay down and give it to us. We made a couple of mistakes but we fought to the end – really proud of the guys’ effort,” said Bok captain Siya Kolisi.
Kolisi exchanged jerseys with Tongan counterpart and try scorer Ben Tameifuna, who added: “South Africa are the best in the world and it’s always tough to cross their line and we managed to do that a few times tonight.”
Handre Pollard was back in the driving seat for the Springboks for the first time in 13 months, the fly-half who booted 22 points in the 2019 World Cup final win over England kicking four conversions from four attempts before going off on the 50-minute mark with the game already won.
Tongan counterpart William Havili opened the scoring with a third-minute penalty for offside, but Pollard spurned a shot himself as the Boks went for touch in the search for tries.
That duly came when Cobus Reinach tapped and went, the scrum-half diving in at the corner.
The Boks were then put under a 10-minute spell of real pressure from the Pacific Islanders, with…
