SOUTH AFRICA 2006-07

The toughest test these world champions faced came against the Tongans in the pool stage...

- Joe Robinson.

I HAVE VIVID memories of the 2007 Springbok side, writes The World Cup was across the Channel in France and for my 13th birthday earlier that year, my dad had bought us tickets to watch South Africa play Tonga in the pool stage in Lens; a quick day trip via P&O Ferries to the industrial French city to watch the likes of Victor Matfield, Percy Montgomery and my personal favourite, captain John Smit.

For lunch, my dad took me to every 13-year-old's favourite restaurant, McDonald's. I had 'Le Big Mac'. I remember the walk from the town centre to the ground taking in a maze of high-banked tunnels, a situation, even in my youth, I knew would have been far more intimidating for visiting football fans. Our seats were bang on the 22m line in the upper tier, nestled among a gaggle of South Africans.

The Springboks had won their first two matches while Tonga still harboured hopes of making the knockouts; ideally, they needed to win and hope that Samoa could beat England later that day. No one thought that would happen - South Africa were really good and Samoa had been fairly abject up until that point - so I decided to adopt Tonga for the day.