Habana ran over his second before matching Lomu’s haul of 15 World Cup tries with a simple hat-trick score moments later.
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South Africa have a nine-day break before their quarter-final at Twickenham on October. 17, giving the players the opportunity to rest battered bodies and rattled minds.
The Boks will play either Wales or Australia in the quarter-finals, depending on who loses in Saturday’s Pool A clash between those sides.
The Eagles trailed by just two tries at halftime but had their doors blown off in a 50-point second half that resulted in a 64-0 Springboks shellacking. South Africa have won all three of the previous meetings between the two teams by at least 23 points.
Bryan Habana had never played rugby before the 1995 World Cup, a tournament he remembers vividly for the way blockbusting All Blacks wing Jonah Lomu carved up England and the way Nelson Mandela presented the trophy to the Springboks.
Habana darted through to go one behind All Black great Lomu’s 16-year mark and nearly instantly equalled it, seizing on a loose ball to dive over in the corner. “It’s a massive honor and privilege to even be seen in the same record books as him”, Habana said.
Just over two-and-a-half weeks ago, the world cup had begun on the most disastrous note for the rainbow nation when they were beaten by second-tier side Japan in their opening match.
He said it had been wonderful to spend time with them in England.
“We always have dreams and goals of achieving success at this World Cup”, said Springboks wing Bryan Habana, who has scored two tries in as many games.
The Boks enjoyed dominance in the scrum and were rewarded with a penalty try when a series of scrums ended in penalties to the South Africans, the last of which sent the referee under the poles to award South Africa five points.
“Japan was 100 times more disappointing for us than it was for anyone outside this group”.
“He’s a great ambassador for South Africa, peaked at the right time and we’re going to need more tries from him”.
That would be a first as every country to win the World Cup got to the final unbeaten.
The United States, yet to win a match at this World Cup, fielded a virtually different team to the one that that lost 25-16 to Samoa.
Habana’s first try made the score 21-0, and when hooker Bismarck du Plessis burrowed over from a close-range ruck six minutes later, the match was all but over.
Replacements: Serfontein for de Allende (60), Steyn for Pollard (56), Paige for du Preez (63), Nyakane for Mtawarira (56), Brits for B. du Plessis (56), du Toit for de Jager (63), Alberts for Burger (48).
United States: 15 Blaine Scully, 14 Brett Thompson, 13 Folau Niua, 12 Andrew Suniula, 11 Zach Test, 10 Shalom Suniula, 9 Niku Kruger; 1 Oli Kilifi, 2 Phil Thiel, 3 Chris Baumann, 4 Louis Stanfill, 5 Matthew Trouville, 6 Danny Barrett, 7 John Quill, 8 Samu Manoa (c).
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Replacements: 16-Joe Taufetee, 17-Zach Fenoglio, 18-Mate Moeakiola, 19-Titi Lamositele, 20-Cam Dolan, 21-Al McFarland, 22-Mike Petri, 23-Chris Wyles.
