Match: South Africa v New Zealand
Time: 3pm Ghana time
Venue: Twickenham
How to watch: SuperSport channel 201/206

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Some refer to Julian Savea (above, pictured) as “the Big Bus”.

A physicist at the University of Auckland has worked out that the All Black winger was travelling at 7.5 metres per second when he scored his third try against France last Saturday and had the kinetic energy of a 10-tonne bus travelling at three kilometres per hour. It does not require a doctorate to work out he will take some stopping at Twickenham on Saturday.

Few opponents have achieved it since the 25-year-old made his Test debut – he announced himself with a hat-trick – against Ireland three years ago. After only 39 Test starts for New Zealand he has plundered 38 tries, a strike rate bettered by no player from a tier one nation in the game’s history.

Maintain that spectacular record and an appropriate new nickname may be required. “Quantity” Savea already has a certain ring to it.

The beauty of this heavy-duty semi-final, though, is that Savea will be only the second most prolific try-scorer on the field. Wearing the corresponding No11 jersey will be Bryan Habana, who requires one more try to eclipse Jonah Lomu as the highest World Cup try-scorer of all-time.

The verb “eclipse” rarely precedes Lomu’s name but Habana (below, pictured) with 64 tries in his 115 Tests for South Africa, long since proved himself to be rather more than an opportunistic poacher with a keen eye for an interception.

With Savea leading the 2015 World Cup scoring charts with eight tries – equalling the record jointly held by Lomu and Habana – this high-profile shootout will reveal a fair amount about both men’s temperaments.

There are plenty who argue, with some justification, that no one will match Lomu’s impact on the sport in 1995. Australia’s David Campese, with 64 tries in 101 Tests, would win my vote as the greatest finisher of all time; Doug Howlett (49 in 62 Tests) and Christian Cullen (46 in 58) also set a prodigiously high standard. Rarely, though, has the stage been so ideally set for two world-class wings to show why the stats do not lie.

It does Savea no harm, admittedly, that he is operating on the end of one of the greatest backlines to wear the silver fern. Geoffrey Boycott’s mother, still wearing her pinny, would score the odd try outside Dan Carter, Conrad Smith, Ben Smith, Ma’a Nonu et al. That said, even his team-mates are beginning to wonder if there has been an All Black winger with a broader range of skills. At 1.92m (6ft 4in) and 106kg (16st 10lb), Savea is not massive – Lomu was 1.96m (6ft 5in) and 120kg (18st 13lb) – but the way he ploughed through three French tacklers to score in Cardiff was all too reminiscent of the irresistible force who rolled over England in Cape Town in 1995.

Savea also defends capably, has represented the New Zealand sevens team and possesses the knack of being in the right place at the right time, prompting the All Blacks head coach, Steve Hansen, to suggest last year he was a more rounded player than Lomu was. Given they both played for the Hurricanes and the younger man admits to having copied his idol’s haircuts when he was younger, comparisons are inevitable, even down to Savea’s temporary fitness blip earlier this year. The All Blacks conditioning coach, Nic Gill, was swiftly on his case; any nutritional shortcomings were certainly not apparent at the Millennium Stadium. In short, there should be a lot more to come, assuming he stays fit.

Scariest of all is that Savea may not even be the best player in his own family – his younger brother Ardie, 22, narrowly missed out on World Cup selection in the back row but has been compared to a young Michael Jones.

That kind of depth keeps New Zealand ahead of the rest; Nehe Milner-Skudder has been a fleet-footed star on the other wing while, with Waisake Naholo, Sonny Bill Williams, Cory Jane, Israel Dagg and Charles Piutau, the All Blacks reserves would walk into most other starting XVs in the world.

At 32, Habana is a slightly different athlete to the sprinter of his earlier days who was clocked at 10.2secs over 100 metres. Playing year round for his country and also in the French Top 14 for Toulon has inevitably extracted a physical toll but his team-mates still appreciate the impact he can make in tight situations. “He has got the ability to score that 20% try, the one that comes out of nowhere,” his long-time colleague Schalk Burger says. “I think he is due one … if we do our job hopefully we can get Bryan some space and he will get the record. He had a chance against America and fluffed it … hopefully he doesn’t fluff the one this weekend.”

May the best wing win. JP Pietersen, Savea’s direct opponent, has already won one World Cup winner’s medal and may see this as an opportunity to remind people there is more than one quality finisher in South Africa’s lineup. While Burger has a decent line in pre”‘match self-deprecation – “Hopefully Julian never runs at me … that will be mildly terrifying to say the least” – the underdogs are well aware Savea has yet to score against the Springboks in five appearances. Curiously, Lomu also had a lean time against South Africa, drawing a blank in 12 attempts. Often it is not the big men who cause the Boks the most trouble but smart ones with a stealthier modus operandi.

The record-books also reveal that Habana has played the All Blacks 22 times, winning only seven of those and scoring a relatively modest seven tries. Even outstanding modern wingers such as Shane Williams, George North and Tommy Bowe – along with this tournament’s stand-outs DTH van der Merwe and Nemani Nadolo – are only as good as the supply line that is feeding them. Savea is quality but those around him are even better. It is a special combination.

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