Three RWC pointers from Ireland vs Springboks

World ranked number one Ireland move on from their gritty win over world champions South Africa to take on crowd-pleasing Fiji next Saturday while the Springboks face Six Nations Grand Slam champions France. 

Apart from lessons learned to take into their next matches, AFP Sport picks out three things that might have longer-term impact on the 2023 World Cup: 

Pollard and Am missing aces in Springbok hand 

South Africa will be a different proposition for Ireland in next September's pool match at the World Cup if both fly-half Handre Pollard and centre Lukhanyo Am are as effective after returning from injury. 

Pollard brings accuracy with the boot which crucially keeps the scoreboard ticking over while Am provides a cutting edge in the centres. 

Both kicking accuracy and creativity were lacking on Saturday and are two things head coach Jacques Nienaber will try and address before the clash with France -- although as he said, "some things take longer than others to fix." 

Damian Willemse is a talented back but the confidence drained from him during the 80 minutes of torture he endured at fly-half against the Irish. 

Replaced before half-time as their points kicker -- Cheslin Kolbe hardly did better -- his match was summed up in the second half when he sent a kick to touch straight out, handing back territorial advantage to the Irish. 

Am's stand-in, the veteran Jesse Kriel, is more a battering ram. His crunching tackle on Johnny Sexton gave the Ireland captain a dead leg but he lacks the artistry of his injured team-mate. 

Irish wary of history repeating itself 

The result may give the Irish a slight psychological edge when they meet at the Stade de France in the World Cup on September 23 next year. 

However, a year in rugby is a very