Never understood the love for RSA. Their win percentage isn’t great in recent years and although a World Cup win is a great achievement they managed it by beating t2 teams, an injury ravaged Wales and a good England team. I think they are better than Aus, but are closer to Aus standard than Fra, Ire and NZ. They have to play too many good teams this time round to achieve success and they aren’t capable of winning back to back to back games against quality opposition
They have a lot of international based players coming together and benefit significantly from the long preparation time for the RWC. They got better and better last time around and peaked at the right end of the tournament.
I don't think you can discount them again this time. They have some excellent players.