IF ANYONE watching the South Africa-Samoa match thought the Springboks were playing as if their lives depended on it, they would not be far wrong. With their future in the Rugby World Cup on the line, Heyneke Meyer, the South African coach, painted a picture for his players that was designed to have them playing with the greatest possible urgency. It worked, they won 46-6, and are now firmly back on track for a place in the quarter-finals.

“We played for our lives,” said Schalk Burger, the 32-year-old who was part of the squad that won the competition in 2007. “In no uncertain terms, if we had lost to Samoa we would probably have no chance of going through to the next round.

“The coach told us that if you want to save your kid from drowning you do it with passion. You don’t do it cool, calm and collected. If the current is taking him in the sea you don’t think about running round the bay, you just try to get there as quick as you can. That’s what we tried to do.

“We just tried to play with as much intensity in everything we did. I think it’s maybe a very good lesson - that you shouldn’t try to be cool, calm and collected. I think some players steer the ship and have to be like that, but most of us, especially the pack, should play with intensity as we did against Samoa.

“I feel very relieved. As Schalk Brits said, if we can bottle this feeling then we will be the richest men on earth, because it’s a feeling of accomplishment and brotherhood. We played for each other and we played with intensity.”

On paper, of course, the Springboks are still in a perilous situation. Having lost their first Pool B game to Japan, they could still be knocked out of the tournament if they lose one of their remaining two games - against Scotland in Newcastle on Sunday, and then against the US in London four days later.

So will they try to play with the same desperate intensity against the Scots and Americans that they displayed against Samoa? Could they really approach every game as if their lives - or those of their children - depended on winning?

That is implausible. For one thing, playing at fever pitch can burn you out. For another, when you are up against stronger, more composed teams than Samoa - and Scotland should come into that category - there is a case for being cool, calm and collected.

As Greig Laidlaw, the Scotland scrum-half, said last week, there can be such a thing as too much passion. Rugby at its best tends to be a combination of heart and head - and guts, of course. Too much emotion can have an adverse affect on decision-making.

This far out from the match is too early for the Springboks to settle on their precise approach, and for Meyer to decide on the best way to motivate his troops. But Burger hinted that the Samoa win, because it gave him and his team-mates more confidence, could be followed by a more measured display against Scotland.

“I don’t think you should get ahead of yourself and think that one good performance means you’ve achieved something,” he continued. “You haven’t. Winning one game and winning it well doesn’t mean much in the bigger scheme. It actually means nothing. One good performance doesn’t mean a lot, but people do play better when they have confidence and they know that the work they’re doing is paying off.

“We should forget about what we did against Samoa and start over again. After the Japan game we wanted to fix things, but we didn’t want to think about it all week as that would get us too down. We said ‘That’s gone, we’ve got another game’. We will try to take the same approach before Scotland.

“We’ll be playing at St James’ Park against a good Scottish side. Whether we beat Samoa by one point or 60 points will not mean anything. We will have to play well and perform well if we are to stand a chance of beating Scotland.

“I think they are a brilliant side. I lost against Scotland at Murrayfield in 2010. You can never write them off. They’re playing exciting rugby, and they’ve beaten a team that beat us without breaking sweat.

“They played clinical rugby and scored great tries. I think we’re going to have to perform at our best.

“We’re enjoying the moment. We have been under immense pressure, so it’s like there’s a weight off our shoulders. We want to bask in that for a little while, enjoy it and enjoy each other’s company, but then it’s over and we have to perform well against Scotland.”