The knockout stage of the World Cup has come early for the Springboks.
Entering Friday’s match against Italy at 11.45am, coach Rassie Erasmus’ men know that defeat will end their Cup run.
After losing to New Zealand in their first match, the Springboks bounced back to beat Namibia.
But they face an Italy side that is at the summit of their pool, having won both their matches with bonus points.
And if South Africa go down on Friday, and the All Blacks beat Canada on Sunday as is expected, it will be tickets for the two-time world champions.
With one pool match left after this, defeat will mean they won’t be able to catch Italy and New Zealand as the top two.
Rugby Championship champions versus the Six Nations wooden-spooners sounds like a walkover for the Boks, but Erasmus warns it won’t be easy.
NO PUSHOVER: The Springboks will face another challenge when they clash with the Italians on Friday. Picture: Christophe Ena/AP.
The Boks lost to Italy 20-18 in 2016, but beat the Italians 35-6 the following year.
Erasmus says: “For us this is a crunch game - this is a do or die game for us.
“If we have to beat Italy with a drop-goal, it doesn’t matter how we do it.
“We want to get out of the pool. The win is the ultimate.
“The most important game was always going to be Italy in the pool stage.
“This is definitely [our most important game to date] - not because it’s for me the most important game, but we want to get to the quarterfinals and semis and final.
“We’ve been building for 20 Test matches now and this is the real deal now.
“The players feel it, sitting here I do have butterflies.
“They will believe they can beat the Springboks.”