Boks sweating on De Villiers injury

While Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer was happy to celebrate an impressive 46-6 mauling of Samoa – which put their World Cup campaign back on track – he admitted there is concern over De Villiers.

De Villiers, who has just recently recovered from a fracture jaw – took a blow to his jaw in a collision with an opponent in Birmingham.

The Boks expect to know the full extent of the injury on Sunday, as they start building towards their decisive Pool B encounter with Scotland next week.

"Jean is going for X-rays," said Meyer. "It is the other side of his jaw that is hurt. We will have to wait and see. I just hope and pray that he is right."

Meyer said his side's 46-6 mauling of Samoa will give fresh hope to the rainbow nation hit hard by a shock defeat by Japan.

After falling to a sensational 32-34 loss to the Japanese in their opening World Cup Pool B game, the Springboks responded in fine style with a six-try pounding of the Samoans.

Soul-searching had been deep and painful in the week following that loss to Japan for a nation where Rugby Union is the national sport, and Meyer did not play down the significance of the result against the Samoans.

"We're a country that needs hope and forgiveness working for each other," said Meyer, who came under fire to resign, following the Japan loss, the biggest upset in World Cup history.

"We really want to make the country proud. Our country needs a lot of hope and the Springboks are the hope of the country.

"When the Springboks do well the country's in a good place."

Meyer added that for such a proud nation, "only winning is good enough".

"It's been a tough week.

"It was always going to be a tough game against Samoa.

"We now have to keep our feet on the ground, stay humble. There's a long way to go."

Meyer said: "I asked the senior players to put up their hands and they did. I am already focused for the next one [against Scotland in Newcastle on Saturday], so I won't really have time to enjoy it, but I'm sure the players probably will.

"It's always great to look yourself in the mirror and see how tough you are. I was especially proud of the defence. To keep out a quality unit such as Samoa, showed the players' discipline. They put their bodies on the line.

"It's said that tries put bums on seats but defence wins trophies. If you asked me, I probably enjoyed our mauling and the solid defence more than the tries."

Meyer lauded the Springbok pack: "I thought our forward play was superb. I said to the players, ‘People don't respect our forwards any more. It's time we put up our hands and play like South African forwards'.

"One of the most pleasing things for me, and the purists will probably agree, was how great it was to see a green pack of forwards going forward – the first time in a while."

JP Pietersen scored a brilliant hat-trick and there were also tries for outstanding flank Schalk Burger, replacement hooker Schalk Brits and flying wing Bryan Habana, allied with 16 points from the boot of Handré Pollard and Pat Lambie.

But Meyer insisted it was his side's defence that had caught the eye, containing a rugged Samoa team to just two Mike Stanley penalties.

"I'm proudest of our defence. Samoa are a good side, but they couldn't get the go-forward," he said. "The players put their bodies on the line – it was very physical out there.

"There was a lot of criticism of the team so to go out there and perform like that, you have to salute them."

Vice-captain Victor Matfield said the week after the Japan defeat had been "one of the toughest weeks in the Springbok team for me and all the players", but that he had been buoyed by the sheer quantity of positive messages.

"We know there are a lot of loyal Springbok fans out there. We know we let them down last week and we're happy we set things right."

But the veteran lock insisted the two-time champions would not now take their eye off the bigger picture, with a third pool game against Scotland at Newcastle's St James Park on October 3, followed by a four-day turnaround before facing the United States at the Olympic Stadium.

"We're still in exactly the same position as we were last week, so it's another big week for us," said Matfield.

"This game is already behind us. We have a huge game against Scotland.

"We're still under pressure. Whenever the Springboks are under pressure, Heyneke has this story about charcoal that when it is placed under big pressure, it becomes diamonds.

"We still need to be better this week coming against Scotland. I think the guys will be there. One performance is not good enough, so we'll put everything into this week as if it's a World Cup final," added the 38-year-old.

Samoa captain Ofisa Treviranus said that Pietersen's 15th minute interception try had been the turning point of the game, handing South Africa an immediate advantage they never conceded.

"We expected South Africa to come hard at us. We tried to play smart rugby, but it didn't work out," Treviranus said.

"The Pietersen intercept in the first-half cost us for the whole game."

With games to come against Japan and Scotland, Treviranus, whose side opened with a 25-16 win over the United States, Treviranus insisted: "Our pool's open, we have two more games but we still have a chance."

Coach Stephen Betham added: "We head into Japan knowing we've used our do-or-die card."