South Africa reaction (Fourie, captain Kolisi, head coach Nienaber, Pollard, Libbok)

MIXED ZONE

Deon Fourie, hooker

On the fourth try and win:

“Our goal was a bit bigger for points difference, so we didn’t reach that objective, but we’ll see what happens next week with the big game between Scotland and Ireland.”

On his line-out throwing:

“I was way more relaxed than the last two games. Romania gave me a bit of confidence, and especially Ireland with that last throw. 

“I know Marvin Orie from the Stormers, we played two years together so our synchronisation worked well.

“I think I just lost one line-out tonight, so that definitely gives me confidence.”

On where the game ranked in terms of the most physical he has played in:

“The games in South Africa against the Bulls; that is always physical as well. Probably not the big hits that I felt today a few times that you saw. Credit to them, they came out firing.”

On what he wants to improve on:

“I haven’t played 80 minutes in a long time, so probably do a bit more fitness. I was quite tired on 65 minutes, I didn’t see how I was going to finish this off with 15 minutes to go.”

On whether it’s tough switching from hooker to flanker during a game:

“There’s not much difference between hooker and flanker, apart from the scrumming and line-outs. After that it’s open play, and at the moment how the game’s evolved, you can see how Malcolm Marx plays, he’s almost like a flanker as well.”

Manie Libbok, replacement fly-half

On a confidence-boosting kicking performance:

“It’s something I worked on really hard in the past week or so. I’m just happy that it came off nicely today. Handre [Pollard] also kicked very well.”

On whether he practised alongside Pollard this week:

“In everything we work together. Handre is a world-class fly-half and player. I’ve learned a lot from him, he helped me a lot in terms of the game itself. For me it’s nice to work with him and learn from the best.”

On what was going wrong with his goal-kicking in previous games:

“I fell off my kicks, that’s why I pulled most of the kicks, I worked on that and I’m just happy that it came off.”

On whether he sped up his kicking routine:

“I kicked the same, I didn’t change anything in terms of speeding up my process.”

Handre Pollard, fly-half

On the physicality of the game:

"It was definitely physical. It was definitely tough for us but we got to give it to the Tongans. They definitely brought it to us, it's fantastic. We actually needed this I think, to prep our heads and minds."

On a quarter-final place not being guaranteed:

"It's out of our hands. We have got to prep for whoever we play and if we don't play that is how the game goes. We played the game tonight out there and we tried our best. We have just got to wait and see what happens next."

On the performance:
"I enjoyed it very much, it was so much fun. Just on a personal note it was nice to play again and I enjoyed myself out there."

On coming into the squad:

"It has been a crazy rollercoaster. There have been extreme lows, of course, early on and extreme highs to get recalled so really just great to be back in the environment with the boys. Hopefully contribute as much as I can in whatever role that may be, I am just here to help the team succeed and I am excited."

On if he was nervous around his kicking:

"We joked in the week about it, my first week is probably going to be in the corner and it was! You follow your normal routine, you do your thing. Like Manie [Libbok] kicked extremely well when he came on. I think it's a great thing as a kicking unit. there have been a lot of heat on us for that but after today we can take this forward with a lot of confidence."

MEDIA CONFERENCE

Jacques Nienaber, head coach

On South Africa fly-half Handre Pollard:

"Handre, the important part is he had 30 minutes at Premiership Cup level, which is a little bit below international [level], tonight he got 50 minutes against a proper Tonga side that has got better as the tournament has gone on. They are a team who will just improve the more they play tier-one nations.

"They have some top players that have played for New Zealand, Australia. Some of them play for the Crusaders, Toulouse, so they know what rugby is about.

"He got a proper test match against that. He got through 50 minutes.

"I think he will just get better. I think he was solid. You look at his ball carries - that was decisive and good. His defence, I thought his level changed well and he put some proper shoulder hits in. I thought his off-the-ball work was good and his kicking game in general was good. The fundamentals [for which] we wanted him to tick the boxes, I think he ticked tonight."

On wing Makazole Mapimpi:

"He unfortunately had a blow-out fracture of his cheekbone, so he'll probably go for specialist scans tomorrow morning to determine the severity of it."

On break before quarter-final:

"The positive is it is pretty much similar to what we experienced in 2019 when we also finished our pool quite early.

"I think we had a 12-13 day preparation break before we went into our quarter-final against Japan. It is something we have done before as a group. It worked out well for us back then so we'll give them two-three days off and then start preparing.

"Until we know what the outcome is of the pool and who we will face, the France New Zealand pool will only be determined on Friday night so we will only actually know, depending on how [Pool B] finish, we will have a good idea of who we will play. I think in the first week now, give the guys some time off to get away from the game, to have a little bit of a mental break and then start focusing on what we can do better. So internally focusing on us on things we must improve if we want to stay in this competition until the end."

On conceding three tries:

"Tonga, with the brilliance they have, can create something out of nothing. That is the beauty of it, because they have quality players - a lot of them have played and represented New Zealand, Australia before. They understand what top international rugby is all about. Tonight you might not give them a sniff and then somebody does something magical.

"Sometimes when you concede tries you have not necessarily done something wrong - they have just done something that was incredibly brilliant. Sometimes you just have to sit back and applaud it. Sometimes it is just good attack.

"You can't cover everything on a rugby field. If there was a try conceded because of a lack of attitude and work rate or a system error, that is something we can improve on."

Siya Kolisi, captain and back-row

On his 50th cap as a captain:

"The only thing I can think about is the physicality. They were tough, the coach prepared us well for that. They don't stop. You think at a certain minute they are going to stop but the next guys who come on, it is the same physicality.

"I applaud our boys for sticking to the job and plan. We wanted to keep it tight, take another step forward and I think we did that well. The best thing about it is we got the bonus-point and we took as many points as we could today."

ON-FIELD REACTION 

Deon Fourie, Mastercard Player of the Match

On playing hooker, when his is normally a back-row:

“No, it was a good game. We expected a tough game. I've played hooker earlier in my career so it wasn't too bad. It went well today and I'm glad. I trained there for the last two years with the Boks and our motto is: we train how we play. That paid dividends today."

On moving into the back row when Marco van Staden came on:

“I must say it's quite tough moving from hooker to flanker. The body is old but I did a good job."

Siya Kolisi, captain

On exchanging tops with Tonga captain Ben Tameifuna:

"It was a really beautiful moment, they're a great team, really hard to play against, they put everything on the line. We knew it was going to be a tough game. We're still grateful for our supporters and families who came out to support us today, hopefully we've done enough to qualify for the next round."

On South Africa's performance:

"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."

On his 50th test as captain:

"It doesn't matter what milestone there is, I'm always proud to be out there with this special group and hopefully we can go all the way."

Jacques Nienaber, head coach

On the bonus-point win:

"We'll have to wait. The other pool gets sorted out on Friday night and our pool gets sorted out on Saturday so it's a waiting game."

On South Africa's creative coaching:

"Our hookers got some decent game time in a proper test match against some good opposition so it's one step closer to getting minutes under their belts."

On fly-half Handre Pollard's comeback performance:

"Brilliant to get 50 minutes into his legs, get exposed to international rugby - it's a big stepping stone for him and we can build from there."