Morne Steyn and Quade Cooper (Gallo Images)

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Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Cape Town - It could be so close that several pundits are almost preferring not to call Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final between defending champions South Africa and Australia in Wellington.

GALLERY: Springboks v Wallabies Match ups

Pick your Rugby World Cup Dream Team

But as usual, supremacy on certain parts of the park could be an influential game-swayer, and these are the trio of match-ups I am especially looking forward to gauging:

1. Heinrich Brussow (SA) v David Pocock (Aus)
Famous last words, but you just get the feeling that increasingly battered, 30-year-old Richie McCaw’s star is slightly on the wane as far as foremost open-side flanks in the world are concerned. It is certainly a position where you earn your stripes. A new generation of fetchers is taking shape ... and here we get a really juicy clash between two of them, as the Boks’ pocket battleship Brussow (25) comes up against another product of southern African soil in Zimbabwe-born Pocock (23), who moved to Australia in his early teens and has become indispensable in the post-George Smith era to the Aussie cause. They have very similar physical dimensions – their heights are listed as precisely the same at 1.81m – and share an astonishing level of effervescence and work ethic. How things shape between the “heavies” in the respective packs will influence which man gets greater licence for destructiveness, no doubt, but Brussow may just have an edge in terms of “puff” after Pocock sat out a good portion of early RWC combat through injury. But that’s no guarantee that the latter won’t still strive to go that extra mile ...

2. Morne Steyn (SA) v Quade Cooper (Aus)
If there are certain similarities between the fetchers, at flyhalf things could hardly be more contrasting: in the Bok “corner” you have the clean-cut, perfectionist, conscientious Steyn, whose unapologetic main weapon is his right foot (especially in terms of his near-unmatchable place kicking)... and in the other the free-spirited, sometimes tempestuous and highly mercurial Cooper, who loves to make wicked use of an array of hand and sidestepping skills – sometimes even from questionable positions deep in his own territory and under the cosh. He is a crucial spark in igniting an up-tempo, ever attack-conscious Wallaby three-quarter division, whilst Steyn is much more programmed to play “percentages” and kick available goals as if in his sleep. Both have defensive shortcomings very likely to be tested. As this is a World Cup quarter-final, and in the volatile climes of Wellington, I am leaning toward the attributes of the South African as a potentially more suitable horse for the proverbial course. Cooper, of course, is capable of blowing that theory quite spectacularly out of the water ... but this match does amount to a major test of his mental mettle in knockout rugby, doesn’t it?

3. Patrick Lambie (SA) v Kurtley Beale (Aus)
By all accounts, you never quite know what the wind is going to do in Wellington, and if it gusts disconcertingly or just rages unceasingly then fullbacks are inevitably going to have a rough old time of it in dealing with “bombs” and also ensuring they are on the button in positional terms. The Aussie game tends to be less based around tactical kicking than the Bok philosophy, but if conditions do create something nearing a lottery (they aren’t meant to, at this juncture) then even the Wallabies will want to test out SA wunderkind Lambie’s resolve in fielding high balls. The Sharks man has looked up to the task in most responsibilities at the tournament thus far, admittedly under greatly less pressure than he will face on Sunday. But the 20-year-old surrenders a fair bit in big-Test experience to Sydney-born Beale, even if the Wallaby is only 22 himself.  Expect both to want to make cheeky, twinkle-toed line intrusions if opportunities do present themselves; it is very much in their respective natures to aspire to. A distraction for Beale is his possible involvement in a tangled web of goalkicking options if Messrs Cooper and/or James O’Connor are errant in this regard.

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