South Africa coach Jake White was full of praise for Bryan Habana after the classy winger scored four tries in a 59-7 demolition of Samoa in the Springboks' opening World Cup game on Sunday.

"He's a special, special player, no doubt," White said of Habana, whose four tries at Parc des Princes equalled Chester Williams's national World Cup record set against the same opponents in 1995.

Habana, who was brilliant throughout, gave the signal for a merciless show with the first of his side's eight tries, a masterpiece with the fleet-footed left wing elusively twisting his way past five Samoans before touching down.

"The way he went outside, inside, underneath those people was amazing," said White.

"That was at a crucial moment of the game and his finish was superb. Those are the players who make the difference between losing and winning big games."

South Africa suffered at first against the rugged Samoans but gradually wore them down before taking total control.

"We put the heat on them, took the gas out of their tank and ended by scoring", summed up South Africa captain John Smit.

Samoa captain Semo Sititi, whose side collapsed in the final half hour, said the Pacific Islanders had been unduly penalised by the referee, New Zealand's Paul Honiss.

"I hope I don't get fined for saying that but all the decisions were against us and that certainly hurt our spirit,"

Sititi said, referring notably to the fact that the Samoans were denied a try for offside early in the second half.

While the Springboks suggested they could give any side, and not just next pool A opponents England, a hard time, Samoa face a struggle to qualify for the quarter-finals.

"Losing by 50 odd points was certainly not part of the plan," said the Samoa coach, former All Blacks loose forward Michael Jones.

"This will obviously make our job a bit harder but I still believe we can qualify."

Reuters