KEY POINTS:
If you ever have the opportunity to get up close and personal with Springbok halfback Fourie du Preez, check out his left shoulder. Protruding from the top is a large bump, the legacy of an AC joint injury that kept him out of the game for three weeks
and still troubles him.
It's comforting to know the 25-year-old is human, and fallible.
There is little other evidence to suggest it. He has been the standout halfback at this tournament, even taking into account the heroics of Agustin Pichot, and quite possibly the standout player, full stop.
His performance against England even moved the normally corpse-like Brian Ashton to label him the "brightest" halfback on the planet.
His coach, Jake White, didn't exactly dampen the enthusiasm for him.
"The one thing about Fourie is... his tactical kicking is unbelievable," White said, before listing a lot more. "He's a great halfback from the base, passes well, defends well, understands rugby, and kicks out of hand so accurately - [he] is a huge blessing."
He might have also said he was extremely polite and unflappable too, after being bombarded by questions in his second language, English, without once appearing to wilt.
There's no good time to mention this, so we'll just blurt it out: he once considered professional golf as an option. Yes, he's one of those good-at-everything-he-touches sort of blokes. If only he wasn't South African.
Don't try to draw him on being the world's best halfback though, because he'll play it with the straightest of bats (although cricket was the one sport he claims he wasn't much good at).
"I've heard people say that but one week you're top, the next week you're down, so you just take it game by game. As long as the team does well, it's fine," du Preez says.
The team is doing plenty fine. One of the more impressive performers in pool play - a scare against Tonga notwithstanding - the Springboks have a relatively safe passage to the final. Rank outsiders Fiji stand in the way tonight, before a semifinal match with either Argentina, who have never progressed that far before, or a weak Scottish side.
It's a prospect the Boks are understandably excited about and here's another reason to fear them: never noted for their unity, this Springbok team is putting some of its dark history behind it.
"This is the tightest we've been over the four years I've been with the Springboks," Du Preez says. "It's always difficult for national teams to be as tight as regional teams I suppose. I don't think you'll ever get that in a national team but this is definitely the tightest we've been."
There's a big Blue Bulls core in the side used to success after their breakthrough Super 14 victory and, even if his coach disagrees with him, du Preez believes they have taken the key ingredients of that success and transplanted it into the green jersey.
"We play very similarly, although Jake [White] will probably be angry about [me saying] that. The way the Bulls played this year and gave the backs a little bit more ball, I would say it's very much the same. My responsibility as halfback is very much the same and for me that's probably a good thing."
What would Jake White say?
"Probably 'we play a much different game here, we don't play as tightly as the Bulls play'. I would tend to disagree with him."
For years the Bulls and, to an extent, the Boks have been accused of having too much muscle and not enough brain cells. That is fast changing too.
"Sometimes in the older days there could have been talk like that but there's a lot of guys here who know the game so we've got a good balance. You need brawn in the team and you need brain in the team. We've got a great mixture."
He again cites the England game as an example of the new Boks, a team that can think on their feet and change a game plan on the hoof.
You could say du Preez was born to play rugby.
His father, Fourie du Preez snr, was a big, raw-boned No 8 for Northern Transvaal. (Du Preez jnr shares with Pierre Spies, ruled out of the World Cup with blood clots, some interesting quirks: they both attended Afrikanse Hoer Seunskool, a virtual nursery for the Blue Bulls situated in the shadow of Loftus Verfeld; and both have fathers who played for Northern Transvaal and who passed their names on to their sons. Pierre Spies snr was a winger who created a forward while Fourie du Preez snr was a forward who created a back.)
Du Preez Snr no doubt wanted to cast du Preez in his own image. The young son played off the back of the scrum until he was nine when it became obvious he was "too small".
That might have been enough to have a large Afrikaaner crying into his beer but du Preez says his father remains his biggest influence.
"In my earlier days, when I started off playing halfback, he was very helpful. He just gave me little pointers as to what the eight was trying to do. But now I use him more for fatherly advice rather than rugby advice."
He has had to adjust to different No 8s during the World Cup too. Blue Bulls team-mate Danie Roussouw started there but injury has meant Schalk Burger has moved to the back of the scrum.
"It can be difficult when you get a different No 8 but both are playing well so it's not a problem," du Preez says nonchalantly.
You get the feeling not much is a problem for the 25-year-old, but there are a couple. There's the shoulder, there's the lack of golf, and there's Byron Kelleher.
"We know each other's game so well. He's very physical and right in my face a lot so it's probably that," du Preez says, answering why he rates Kelleher his toughest opponent.
"Pichot is playing very well this tournament, the way he's directing and leading the team is brilliant. That's the way a halfback should be; directing and leading the team."
Potentially, though, the second-best halfback at this tournament is sitting on the bench. Ruan Pienaar might be one of those players that rues having grown up in the wrong era. Certainly a more permanent shift to fullback might be his best chance of starting regularly for the Boks.
"It's nice knowing we have two very good halfbacks. I rate him very highly. I know I have to be on the top of my game or else I won't play, I'll sit on the bench. It keeps me on my toes," du Preez says.
"He's a humble guy and we get on very well together."
The golf and the shoulder. They're inter-connected. Du Preez was playing off a one handicap recently but "it's blown out to two. My shoulder has held me back a bit".
It's hurt him financially, too.
"Victor [Matfield] plays off a seven [handicap] but he always takes my money."
He hasn't reached that magic milestone yet, being a scratch golfer, but has big post-World Cup plans.
"I want to play a bit more golf and a bit less rugby."
There's a decent chance he'll be playing golf as a world champion. If that dream doesn't come true there's an even better chance he'll be playing as the undisputed best No 9 in the world.
