South Africa have been bolstered by the return of Bakkies Botha for their Pool D match against Fiji on Saturday.
The Bulls lock missed the thrilling win over Wales with a sore Achilles but has made a timely return as Victor Matfield has been ruled out of this weekend’s clash at Wellington Regional Stadium with a hamstring strain.
Fellow second-rower Johann Muller is also struggling with a tight hamstring and must pass a fitness test before taking his place on the bench.
If Muller is unavailable flanker Francois Louw will come into the reserves with Willem Alberts acting as the locking cover for Botha and Danie Rossouw.
"We have had injury problems at lock but we have versatile players to cover for most situations," Springboks coach Peter de Villiers said.
"Danie Rossouw has now been picked to start at 4, 5, 7 and 8 this season and will call the lineouts this weekend."
"Willem Alberts is on the bench to cover four of the back five positions in the pack and we have a couple of scrumhalves on the bench who cover three other positions as well, so we are fortunate."
Injuries have forced De Villiers into making four changes to the line-up that defeated Wales.
Aside from Botha’s return for Matfield, Bryan Habana (knee) has been replaced by Odwa Ndungane on the left wing, while Patrick Lambie comes in a fullback with Francois Steyn shifted to second five-eighth in place of Jean de Villiers (rib cartilage).
The versatile Ruan Pienaar replaces Butch James (hip flexor) on the bench.
De Villiers has handed Gurthro Steenkamp a start at loosehead prop after he made an excellent impact as a substitute against Wales last weekend. Tendai Mtawarira drops to the bench.
"Against a tough proposition like Fiji you'd prefer to have all your players available but this is tournament rugby and we picked our squad knowing that we would have to cover for many situations," added De Villiers.
The Springboks have played Fiji twice before. In 1996 they recorded a 43-18 win in Pretoria but were made to work much harder by the Pacific Islanders in their quarter-final clash in Marseille four years ago.
The South Africans eventually won that match 37-20 on their way to claiming the 2007 World Cup.
South Africa: 1. Gurthro Steenkamp. 2. John Smit (c), 3. Jannie du Plessis, 4. Bakkies Botha, 5. Danie Rossouw, 6. Heinrich Brussow, 7. Schalk Burger, 8. Pierre Spies, 9. Fourie du Preez, 10. Morne Steyn, 11. Odwa Ndungane, 12. Frans Steyn, 13. Jaque Fourie, 14. JP Pietersen, 15. Pat Lambie
Replacements: 16. Bismarck du Plessis, 17. Tendai Mtawarira, 18. Johan Muller, 19. Willem Alberts, 20. Francois Hougaard, 21. Ruan Pienaar, 22. Juan de Jongh