- This will be the 77th meeting between Australia and South Africa at all venues. Australia has won 31 and South Africa 44, while one match has been drawn.
- The two teams have opposed each other twice previously at Rugby World Cup, splitting the results. South Africa beat Australia 27-18 at Cape Town in 1995 in what was the country’s maiden World Cup match. Australia returned the favour four years later, edging the Springboks 27-21 in extra time in London to eliminate the defending champions from the 1999 tournament, which Australia went on to win.
- The 1999 defeat was the first suffered by South Africa in a World Cup match, and one of only three the Springboks have sustained at the tournament, being followed by losses to England (pool) and New Zealand (quarter-final) at the 2003 event in Australia.
- Wallabies coach Robbie Deans was co-coach of the New Zealand side which beat South Africa 29-9 at Melbourne in 2003 to eliminate the Springboks in the quarter-finals of the fifth Rugby World Cup.
- Australia, which has competed at all seven Rugby World Cups, and South Africa, which is attending its fifth tournament, are the only two nations to have twice been crowned as Rugby World Cup winners.
- Sunday’s match is the 39th to be played by the Wallabies at the Rugby World Cup, and Australia’s seventh quarter-final. The Wallabies have won 31 of their matches at the tournament, and four of their six previous quarter-finals, with the losses at that stage of the tournament being sustained against England in 1995 and 2007.
- Adam Ashley-Cooper is the only surviving starting back from Australia’s 2007 quarter-final against England, while Rocky Elsom, Dan Vickerman and Stephen Moore remain from among the run on forward pack. Bench players Berrick Barnes and Nathan Sharpe also featured four years ago at Marseilles where Australia exited the tournament following a 10-12 defeat.
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