18/10/2007 22:07

Paris - South Africa gave England their three worst defeats in rugby history this year. The Springboks aren't drawing any confidence from any of them for the World Cup final this weekend.

"Not really," Boks lock Victor Matfield said on Thursday.

A final brings entirely more pressure on players than regular Tests, and who best handles it will be halfway to victory, Matfield added.

That's why he disregards the 58-10 and 55-12 wins at home in June and 36-0 victory at Stade de France a month ago, and gives England an equal shot at the title beside the Springboks.

"I think a final is a funny thing. I think every time you go into a final it's 50-50," he said. "There's going to be opportunities on the day and in the final it's vital, there's only going to be one or two (opportunities) and when you get them you have to use them, so I think that's what it's all about.

"Anything that happened in the past is the past and the 80 minutes in the final is what's going to be important."

Matfield said the growing prominence of set pieces means he and the South African forwards will have their work cut out to get on top of England.

"I think it's going to be very important. In the last year you can see how much more emphasis there was on the phases, in the scrum and the lineout, so it's going to be that again on Saturday.

Try to intimidate

I think we focused a lot on our scrum this week and hopefully we can put them under pressure in the lineouts as well.

"They'll try to intimidate us up front and then play field positions with Jonny Wilkinson, so we'll have to stay up to him."

Matfield and Bakkies Botha are considered the most formidable pair of locks at Test level, but Matfield said he rated English opponents Ben Kay and Simon Shaw.

"They're much the same as Bakkies Botha and myself. I think Ben Kay's really a thinker of the lineout - he always comes up with something new so that's going to be interesting. And I think Simon Shaw's probably the closest lock you get to Bakkies - he's very physical, he's a big boy. He likes driving more than anything so it's a great combination.

"We did very well against Argentina but I don't think they're in the same class as England's lineout, so it will be a bit more difficult but we're confident."

Botha agreed.

"We know what to expect from England and, as a player, I just want to put my forwards on to the front foot, to use my strength and my power - to put it through the ball," Botha said.

"It's going to be a hard one because England's a big pack as well, so it's a big pack against a big pack. It's going to be nice, with hard collisions this weekend."

Matfield and Botha, also teammates with Blue Bulls, will extend their world record pairing to 36 Tests since their first together against Scotland in June 2003.

"It's not like we are telling each other 'Listen here, we are the best locking pair in the world,"' Botha said. "We're just telling each other 'Listen, we should push each other harder and harder,' and I think that's the big difference - that you come to a level with the state of your rugby and you think 'that's enough' but we're pushing ourselves to get to higher levels.

Wickus van Heerden added

"The big one is this weekend and we just want to go out and give it our all and show the world that we can play.

"But at the end of the day we're not here as a pair, we're here as a squad and we must win this World Cup as a 15-man team, as a family."

Flanker Wickus van Heerden was added to that squad in the reserves on Thursday at the expense of former captain Bob Skinstad.

The same starting lineup which beat Fiji 37-20 in the quarter-finals and Argentina 37-13 in the semi-finals will play in the final at Stade de France, and the only change was on the bench where Van Heerden returns for Skinstad as loose forward cover.

Van Heerden, taller and younger than Skinstad, played in the 36-0 pool defeat of England when Schalk Burger was suspended, and also started against Tonga and the United States. He was on the bench against Fiji, and was replaced by Skinstad against Argentina.

"There were no emotional decisions made, only rational ones," White said.

The starting XV will be the most experienced Springboks side ever fielded, with a total of 668 caps. England have a healthy 609 including six starters who played in the 2003 final.

"We can't change anything now, we've been working towards this for four years. We know exactly what we're going to do," White said.

"We've won the Super 14 and Tri-Nations. They already know they have just got to use whatever they've learned along the way. If you've prepared properly, all other things are immaterial."

He found agreement from John Smit, set to captain the Boks for a record 48th time in 74 Tests, and who said the years since the last World Cup seemed to have whizzed by.

"It's been four years of hard work, training, sacrifices, getting to know each other," he said. "We haven't come all this way for nothing."