BSR correspondent, The Cuz, is in New Zealand for the 2011 RWC, this is what he has to say: South Africa’s participation in the pool phase of the RWC is complete and looking back on their performance in the pool games, one has to ask:  Is the green machine ready for the knock out phase of the competition?

Personally … I worry.

They won all of their games, but to be fair, who expected anything less than that?

The Boks, who are rated second in the world on the IRB’s world rankings, faced Wales (7th), Fiji (16th), Namibia(19th) and Samoa(10th).  They decimated Fiji and Namibia, but I feel that they were really stretched against Wales and Samoa.

The game against Wales was a real eye opener to me, in terms of how the Boks stack up in world rugby these days.  We should have hammered them (by at least 10-14 points), but we came out of that game being rather lucky to get the win.  The Welsh were bitterly disappointed, and so they should have been.  They deserved to have won that game.

Equally, we should have dominated the Samoans on Friday.  We didn’t.  We dominated some areas of the game, but the game was largely dictated by the Samoan game plan.  There were far too many errors, and I was left with an empty feeling in my stomach.  If we play like that against Australia in the quarters, then we’ll be on the next flight home.

There have been a few standout players in the pool matches, but on the whole the Springboks really need to raise the level of their game.

My message to Peter de Villiers and the Springboks is simple:  “Wake up or we’ll see you soon!!!!!”

The Cuz