South Africa 30 Tonga 25

Mighty South Africa were given the fright of their lives on Saturday before they made sure of a World Cup quarter-finals place with an error-strewn 30-25 win over Tonga.

Springboks coach Jake White almost paid an embarrassing price for making 11 changes to the side which beat England 36-0 and putting his faith in his B team which hadn't played a competitive match for a month.

But having seen his second-string side slip 10-7 behind early in the second half, he made sweeping changes bringing on his entire bench including full-back Percy Montgomery for a record-breaking 90th cap.

The 1995 champions also scored four tries to make sure of a bonus point which guaranteed top spot in Pool B and a quarter-final tie, probably against Wales, in Marseille on October 7.

"It was one of the magical moments for us today," said Tonga coach Quddus Fielea.

"It hasn't sunk in. It was a fantastic performance from our players and when we saw the kind of team they were putting out we just decided to have a go at them."

Tonga skipper Nili Latu praised his team for fighting fire with fire.

"They had power and speed so we knew that we had to be smart if we were to beat them. We knew that if we got in their faces, they wouldn't like it."

Tonga, who were to score three tries of their own and pick-up a bonus point for keeping the margin of defeat down to less then seven points, nipped ahead after nine minutes when Pierre Hola kicked a penalty before South Africa fly-half Andre Pretorius squandered two of his own.

But the Springboks grabbed the first try in the 18th minute when Tonga were caught napping by full-back Ruan Pienaar who took a quick tap and darted over with Pretorius kicking the extras to make the score 7-3.

Pretorius missed his third penalty before the Springboks' untidy opening period was embarrassingly illustrated with Ashwin Willemse and prop CJ van der Linde both dropping the ball when in sight of the line.

With the majority of the 40,000 crowd at the Stade Felix Bollaert behind them Tonga dramatically stormed into the lead four minutes after the interval when prop Kisi Pulu was driven over and Hola added the extra points to make the score 10-7.

A furious White reacted immediately bringing on regular skipper Jon Smit, Brendan Botha, Victor Matfield, Bryan Habana and Francois Steyn.

But Pretorius's miserable afternoon continued when he missed his fourth penalty before flanker Danie Rossouw was stretchered off with his neck in a brace.

Steyn took over kicking duties and he brought South Africa level at 10-10 as the former champions began to string together a run of 20 unanswered points.

Juan Smith, who had replaced Rossouw, scored his side's second try in the 59th minute with Montgomery, who had come on for Pretorius and passed Joost van der Westhuizen's mark of 89 caps, kicking the conversion for 17-10.

Stand-in skipper Bobby Skinstad scored for 22-10 and Pienaar then finished off a sweeping move to make it 27-10 with his second try of the match.

South Africa were down to 13 men at one stage with both Steyn and Habana sin-binned while Tonga winger Joseph Vaka was also yellow-carded.

In a breath-taking finale, Tonga scored two tries in eight minutes through centre Sukanaivalu Hufanga and lock Vilamai Vaki.

Hola kicked the second conversion to make the score 27-22.

Montgomery then calmed his team's nerves with a penalty to edge his side to 30-22 before Hola grabbed another penalty for Tonga who left the field to a standing ovation.

Tonga look likely to face a Paris showdown with defending champions England next Friday if they are to secure a first-ever last-eight spot.

SOUTH AFRICA 30 (Ruan Pienaar 2, Juan Smith, Bobby Skinstad tries; Andre Pretorius con, Percy Montgomery pen con, Francois Steyn pen) bt TONGA 25 (Kisi Pulu, Sukanaivalu Hufanga, Viliami Vaki tries; Pierre Hola 2 pens, 2 cons)