South Africa, currently second in the International Rugby Board’s world rankings and Rugby World Cup winners in 1995 and 2007, head Pool B for the 2015 tournament, which will take place in England.

It’s the fourth consecutive time that the Springboks have been drawn in the same pool with Samoa, and the second time they are in the same group as Scotland, as in 1999.

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer, who attended the draw at the Tate Modern in London, was satisfied with the pool allocation.

“Our aim was to be in the first band of teams and we achieved that, moving from fourth at the start of the year to second in the IRB world rankings,” said Meyer.

“As I said before the draw was made – to us it doesn’t matter who we are drawn against, because to win the World Cup, you have to beat the best teams out there.

“If ever there was testimony that the gap between the top teams have closed, we saw that over the past month in the Northern Hemisphere. There really is very little to choose between the top sides in the world, while the next batch of teams has also improved a lot recently.”

 All the pools for Rugby World Cup 2015:

Pool A: Australia, England, Wales, Oceania 1, Playoff winners

Pool B: South Africa, Samoa, Scotland, Asia 1, Americas 2

Pool C: New Zealand, Argentina, Tonga, Europe 1, Africa 1

Pool D: France, Ireland, Italy, Americas 1, Europe 2

By Own Corr/Jacaranda Sport