South Africa fans still shudder when they recall last autumn's ill-fated European tour.

Clive Woodward's Team England triumphed 53-3 at Twickenham in November as an outclassed Springbok side resorted to violent tactics that drew condemnation from all quarters outside of the South African camp.

Jannes Labuschagne was sent off for an outrageously late tackle on England talisman Jonny Wilkinson early on and from that point on the Springboks opted for a gameplan that broke practically every rule in the book.

Rudolf Straeuli's side were guilty of playing rugby which was against the spirit of the game. In short, they were out to intimidate by whatever means possible.

Having seen his side take the mother of all beatings in a purely rugby sense, Straeuli seemed to be relishing the prospect of taking on Woodward's men when it really matters, namely in the pool stages of the World Cup.

"We'll see each other in Perth again," he said.

Surprisingly both Straeuli and captain Corne Krige kept their jobs in the wake of that debacle, but South Africa's chances of repeating their epic 1995 victory are remote.

The Boks face a tough battle to reach the last four, especially if they lose to England in the pool stages. The loser of that key match is likely to finish as runners-up in the group, which would almost certainly mean a quarter-final clash against New Zealand - one of the pre-tournament favourites.

It is always perilous to write the Springboks off as, on their day, they are capable of beating anybody.

But despite winning their summer Tests against Scotland (2-0) and Argentina the Boks had to come from behind in all three matches and looked anything but world beaters.

Their performances in this year's Tri-Nations tournament were a mixed bag and the coach seemed unsure as to what his best line-up was - his constant chopping and changing hardly creating stability in the Bok camp.

Straeuli's "see you in Perth" remark may prove more prophetic than he realises.

South Africa's hopes of World Cup success rest, to a large extent, on winning the match-up with England on October 18, barely 11 months after they were torn apart at Twickenham.

Perth, quite simply, is Straeuli's date with destiny.

Squad: Richard Bands, De Wet Barry, Christo Bezuidenhout, Selborne Boome, Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger, Danie Coetzee, Neil de Kock, Thinus Delport, Jacque Fourie, Werner Greeff, Derick Hougaard, Louis Koen, Corne Krige, Ricardo Loubscher, Victor Matfield, Jorrie Muller, Breyton Paulse, Faan Rautenbach, Danie Rossouw, Dale Santon, Hendro Scholtz, Lawrence Sephaka, John Smit, Juan Smith, Stefan Terblanche, Joost van der Westhuizen, Jaco van der Westhuyzen, Joe van Niekerk, Ashwin Willemse.