Boks put their hands up
One week after the humiliating 34-32 defeat – the biggest shock in World Cup history – the South Africans rebounded with a vengeance beating the Pacific islanders 46-6 on Saturday.
It was a clinical performance that went back to their strengths as they dominated territory and suffocated their opponents with their physicality.
The two-time world champions spent the week apologising to the nation. But Pietersen – one of seven in the starting line-up who were in the 2007 World Cup winning side – said they also admitted their guilt to each other to make themselves stronger.
"We had to win, if we didn't win today we would have been in a very difficult situation," he said after the emphatic win.
"We were open about it all week, on the situation that we were in. And the only way to get out of the situation was (up to) ourselves.
"We told ourselves that if we win our remaining three games then we will definitely qualify."
Top of Pool B with seven points, the South Africans are maintaining hopes that they can become the first country to lose their first match at the World Cup and go on to win the trophy.
Pietersen said that there had been a focus on cutting down on the error-rate to give themselves a better chance of gaining momentum after his early intercept try got them ahead.
"What really let us down last week was our discipline. It was a great result today and you can see that our discipline was very good," he said.
He went on to become the third Springbok wing, after Chester Williams and Bryan Habana, to score a hat-trick against Samoa which where his first World Cup tries since 2007 having missed out completely in 2011.
"It is always special scoring a try for your country, but a hat-trick is very special and I'll remember it forever," he said.
AFP
