True SpaceMonkey, SA and France is a case of "you scratch my back, I scratch yours" they supported the French bid so the French will do the same in return. Ditto with England who are likely to launch a 2015 bid them and SA have already made a "gentleman's agreement."
They also have built up a surprisingly strong relationship with the Argentians thanks to playing tests against them every year when AUS and NZ generally ignore them, that is another vote in the bag.
Add in a potential competition involving Currie Cup teams playing against Welsh, Irish, Scottish and Italian clubs and they are likely to secure even more votes.
SA have played their cards right and are in a good position.
NZ didn't do enough to secure votes IMO, of course now the NZRFU are going to blame it all on us again even though I think the ARU did the right thing in pledging to support the Japanese bid, but no one can argue that the AB's haven't exactly made many friends up in the Northern Hemipshere as of late.
Japan, well they are relying on the IRB to actually put the good of the game before greed which the IRB would never do and trying to use the "neutral ground factor"(ie. Japan most likely not making it past the pool stage leaving no clear advantage to any team) to appeal to other countries.
