Bok head coach Jacques Nienaber lauded the team’s character to pull through a 28-29 thrilling contest in Paris against France on Sunday to book their place in the semi-final.
The Springboks will face England in the last four on Saturday, while Argentina and New Zealand will meet in the first semi-final on Friday.
“We knew how tough it would be to come to France and face the French. They’ve been playing well and were consistent in their performances," Nienaber said.
"The French in France, you look at their consistency, they've been a proper team building with good individuals. We knew it would be a proper test match. All the other quarter-finals were won and lost in the last minutes of the game."
“They’ve also been building well as a team, so we knew it was going to be a proper Test match and it was always going to be tight. Many of the games (in the tournament) have been won and lost in the last eight minutes.”
While Nienaber was open about his excitement, he said the Boks still had work to do if they wanted to defend their title.
“There were good things and other things we didn’t do so well,” said Nienaber, “but there was the pressure of a knock-out game, and we know there is a lot we need to work on going forward.”
"There's a lot of things where we got stuff wrong. The quick tap we've been working on for some time, we've not had an opportunity to use it. We worked on it, but still, there are a lot of things we weren't awesome at but that's probably the pressure of a knockout game. There's a lot of stuff we need to fix."
The Springboks will move hotels in Paris on Monday and will have the day off to rest and recover before returning to training on Tuesday for the semi-final.