Nicky Little, born in New Zealand, a professional player for the Italian side Padua, and before that for Canterbury, Waikato, North Harbour (all in NZ), Sale, Pontypridd, Dax and Saracens, has played fly-half for Fiji, the land of his father, for 11 years. All that worldly experience has come in handy at this World Cup. “Some of the guys had never used a lift. They were just riding up and down. I said, ‘Guys, you’ve got to press a button for the floor you want to get off.’ They didn’t know. It is so humbling being with them.”

It was humbling last week when Little and his colleagues disappeared under a mountain of faxes, letters, gifts and charms, sent by a population in agonies of suspense over today’s quarter-final, at Stade Velodrome in Marseilles, against South Africa. There was the tale of the outlying villagers who dragged a transmitter up a mountain so that they can listen to the commentary. This afternoon, we will see a South Seas island festooned with sheer rugby talent, and a joy for the sport, up against the giant, pragmatic, blasting Springbok machine.

Little’s loyalty is well past heroic. He has cared for his teammates out on the field, too – through years when they had to scrape up a team, brutalised by rugby’s neglect, with top players unable to secure release from their pro clubs in Europe, Japan and New Zealand or who had simply been poached by bigger nations. He played on when there was no money, no back-up, no proper food, when they stayed on camp beds with the opposition in palaces, and when defeats simply became too hard to swallow. “I’ve played in some games when the guys were just, you know . . . gone. The coaching could be out of the old school, too. Our scrum was going badly. So they’d say, ‘Right, push harder’.”

Little was still at the helm at fly-half last Saturday in Nantes. Funding from the International Board, belated and life-giving, new systems, new clout in claiming their players, new Australian coaching input, meant Fiji came into this tournament in better heart, fitter, more cosmopolitan. They took the field against Wales with a place in the quarter-final at stake. One week has not withered the strength of my conviction on the final whistle that we had witnessed the greatest display of attacking rugby of all time (and by both teams).

For once, Little’s cares fell away. “It’s so easy to play with these guys,” he says. “In my pro teams the players have had some better techniques but not so much imagination or ability. You throw the ball at the feet of a Fijian and he will pick it up with one hand. I just give them the ball and off they go. Even the props are all calling for the ball. They want it in their hands.” And what of Seru Rabeni and Seremaia Bai, the centres who tore Wales to shreds with a galaxy of skills and pace? “Rabeni and Bai? Those two are beasts, man. They are animals.”

Little realised he was in a new era seconds after he had shelled out a pass that, to Pacific horror, was intercepted by Martyn Williams, the Welsh flanker, who ran half the length of the field and scored. Fiji were down with six minutes left.

Normally, they would have folded. “Gethin Jenkins [the Welsh prop] and I are friends,” says Little. “We exchanged high fives as I walked back. He said, ‘bad luck’.”

The downcast Little reached the rest of his team behind the posts. “I said sorry to the boys. But the young guys were saying, ‘chill out, chill out. We’ve got six minutes left’. Usually that’s what us old guys would say. That was good, that was new. That was history.” He looked back at the years of deprivation, and the miracle of Nantes. “Maybe we made a bit of a mockery of the amount of money that some of the teams get,” he says. “You don’t always need it. It’s nice. If they come to me with some big zeros, I will be taking it. But we showed the world what Fiji can do.”

They did. Unfortunately, South Africa were watching. Jaque Fourie, the centre, spouted on Friday to the effect that he had no respect for Fiji and expected to beat them, and beat them up. Ever charming. But it is almost impossible to believe Fiji will continue beyond today. Wales played Fiji at their own game. South Africa will not. They will try to smash Fiji at the contact areas through Schalk Burger and their back row and their heavy midfield.

And above all they will try to smash Fiji’s ephemeral scrum, which was even in trouble against Wales. B J Botha, the first-choice tight-head, will be absent but South Africa will have to lose a few more before they drift into Fiji’s scrummage compass. Nothing in the tournament has changed the conviction that South Africa are the closest challengers to New Zealand, or that they have a chance of beating the All Blacks.

Yet Fiji are not just glamorous athletes. They have a heavy defence of their own, and are good at the lineout. Akapusi Qera, bound for Gloucester after the tournament, is an all-purpose flanker of staggering talent, capable of running miles to score. Mosese Rauluni, the scrum-half and captain, is wisdom in white. Rabeni and Bai, the beasts, can beast any defence. At least you hope they can make it a battle, and show their talents. Little, sadly, will not be out there today. At the very end against Wales, he hurt his knee ligaments. Let us fervently hope that all those transmitters pick up today further reports of all kinds of rugby glories. All they may win today is hearts. But those who give up their hearts, will surely feel blessed.

Inside track

TV match South Africa v Fiji Fiji beat Wales 38-34 to win three World Cup matches for the first time Fiji reached the quarter-finals of the first World Cup in 1987, losing to France 31-16 Percy Montgomery came on as a replacement for South Africa against Tonga for a record 90th cap, beating the 89 of Joost van der Westhuizen

Previous matches Played 1 South Africa won 43-18

Today, ITV1, 1.30pm, kick-off 2pm