South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer has backed his players to redeem themselves in Saturday's Pool B showdown with Samoa, following their shock opening World Cup defeat to Japan.

The Springboks have come under heavy criticism following last weekend's loss to the Brave Blossoms in Brighton. Meyer has benched half of the team that played at the AMEX Stadium for Saturday's clash against the Pacific Islanders, but has kept faith with under-fire captain Jean de Villiers.

"We deserve all the criticism," Meyer said during Wednesday's team announcement at Birmingham's International Convention Centre. "It is unacceptable for the Springboks. We are a proud nation and a proud team.

"We have had immense support from South Africa, even if we don't deserve it, and I just want to thank all the guys that supported us. I've probably had more emails and SMSes than ever in my life, even more than when we beat the All Blacks."

Replacement hooker Schalk Brits is one of the players that comes into the fold for the game at Villa Park. With Samoa having beaten the USA on Sunday, the pressure will be on South Africa to perform. Brits admitted his team-mates had been exposed to the criticism of them back home.

"It's been quite vicious," Brits said. "There will always be criticism even if you win. This weekend we can put a lot of things right with our performance, not say too much but do things on the pitch.

"Everyone has been getting on the bandwagon. We have seen all the cartoons, sketches, jokes and pictures. Come Saturday we need to put all that behind us and do what we have done for the last 10 years."

Centre Damian De Allende, who will also start against Samoa, added: "It took three days [to get over the Japan defeat]. The boys really got over it yesterday in training. It was still a bit dull on Monday because everyone knew we had let down ourselves and the country. It was quite tough.

"Yesterday was a lot better than Monday. We spoke about it and got it all out. Hopefully it will pay off this weekend."