South Africa are hoping to ride their reputation as backward-thinking "Neanderthals" all the way to a successful Rugby World Cup defence.

While the rugby world has been quick to write off the Springboks in the wake of their 39-20 and 40-7 Test drubbings in Australia and New Zealand last month, there is a feeling in South Africa that the sleeping giants are about to wake.

Eccentric Boks coach Peter de Villiers copped a pounding for sending a second-string squad to Australasia for South Africa's opening two Tri Nations matches, but there is a growing belief in the Republic that the William Webb Ellis Cup holders are plotting another ambush.

The sixth World Cup kicks off in New Zealand in a month and, with de Villiers having recalled most of the 21 frontline players who had reportedly been "rehabilitating" for their final two Tri Nations Tests, the Boks are quietly brimming with belief.

Inspirational captain John Smit has revealed that the veterans of South Africa's 2007 World Cup triumph in France had made a pact two years ago to carry on playing in a determined bid to retain the trophy, rather than retire en masse.

"In 2009, we realised that almost the whole team could go on to the next World Cup and, even though we would be four years on from the 2007 World Cup, most of our players would still be under 30," Smit told The Sunday Independent Sport.

In fact, the Springboks' likely World Cup squad will be, on average, two-and-a-half years younger than England's so-called Dad's Army team that won the World Cup in Australia in 2003.

"South Africa's opposition traditionally regard them as Neanderthals, incapable of forward thinking, and our local supporters tend to agree," the newspaper's rugby correspondent Mike Greenaway wrote.

"And long may the global trend of underestimating the cerebral capacity of the Springboks to continue, the coaching staff will be saying to themselves as they tie the bow on a World Cup package that has been two years in the making, much of it under the radar."

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