ABs shift focus to Boks
Oct 01,2012
Despite already securing the inaugural Rugby Championship title, New Zealand are keen to finish the tournament with an unbeaten record.
While there have been suggestions the All Blacks might lose some focus after putting 50 points past Argentina to convincingly wrap up the competition with a game against the Springboks to spare, they dispelled any thoughts of slowing down against their old rivals at in Soweto on Saturday.
A win in South Africa in its own right is highly prized, forwards Sam Cane and Sam Whitelock said.
"We've won the championship but we've parked that now," young flanker Cane said.
"What we're focused on is winning over here. They've always been big Test matches and it's always more rewarding, hearing from the older guys, to win over here because of the challenge."
But for top-ranked New Zealand, yet another victory would also allow it to finish the tournament with six wins and a 16th consecutive Test victory - one of the best winning runs by a top-tier nation, which New Zealand and South Africa share.
"The challenge for us to play well this week and put a solid performance together is huge," second-row Whitelock said.
"With the competition being new, it will be great to start it off with a clean sweep."
A second straight victory in Soweto for the All Blacks -following their come-from-behind success in 2010 - would also be sweeter than most.
"We talked about last week playing against the Argentinians at home and then coming to play the South Africans here," Cane said. "They are probably the toughest two places to win in world rugby. If we can do that, we'll be pretty happy."
The Springboks showed a mini-revival to physically batter Australia in Pretoria last weekend. The Test now for New Zealand's players is to shrug off a long trip from Argentina and the effect of the altitude up on the South African highveld - where the Springboks tend to be at their strongest.
Whitelock said the problem of fatigue would be "next to minimum" by the weekend.
Instead, negating the influence of about 90,000 people at the thunderous stadium formerly known as Soccer City and the venue for the 2010 football World Cup final was more of a factor.
The All Blacks did that brilliantly in La Plata against the Pumas, silencing a rowdy Argentinian crowd with a clinical first-half display despite conceding an early try.
"I guess the big thing they've got is that they'll have about 90,000 Africans behind them," explained Cane.
"We'll want to start well. "And similar to what we did on Saturday, take the crowd out of it early."
Oct 01, 2012 at 18:15:17
First of all congrats to the AB's for winning the championship! I am sure saturdays test will be a humdinger and it will not be a dead rubber game because the AB's are on the brink of breaking the most consecutive test victories which is currently shared between the 2 teams. The boks played with an incredible amount of pride and passion and the poor wallabies suffered a painful defeat! The thing that worries me for the Boks is the lack of composure shown against the wallabies. Three tries and the missed kicks that could have made the scoreline look a lot worse.The boks were also counter rucked three times by the Aussies resulting in turnovers. Half of the boks points were scored with 14 Aussies on the field.
The AB's showed composure in beating Pumas converting nearly al there opportunities. The boks will have to concentrate for 80 minutes against the AB's this weekend as they will not be as poor as in Dunedin. The AB's also have Carter back so that makes a huge difference. I hope for the Boks all the starting forwards will be fit for saturday. Looking forward to another Bok - AB Epic battle. Go Boks end there run!!!!
Oct 02, 2012 at 02:33:09
Well said mate, well said. ;-)
It will be a great match, they always are, between the worlds #1 and #2 teams with the worlds 2 most fanatic rugby supporters. As an All Black supporter, beating SA is always the best. Next would be Australia but as of late they haven't put up much competition, I should say as of the last decade to be blunt and 3rd would be England because.....well, just because lol and it's nice to rub it in the Poms face! hahaha. Can't wait, good luck to both teams, going to be a bloody boomer!!